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ISTOEY OF THE HUGUENOTS. 



BY 



W. CARLOS ^ARTYN, 



lUTHOE OF " THE LIFE AND TDIES OF JOHN MILTOX," 
AND ;c THE LIFE AND TDIES OF MARTIN LUTHER." 




THE LIBRARY 
ldF CONGRESS 

[WASHINGTON 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMEBIC AN TEACT SOCIETY, 



L- 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18S6, by 
the American Teact Society, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the Southern District of the State of New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter i. 

Lesson of French Protestantism — The sixteenth century— Forerun- 
ners of the Reformation — Christianity ascends the throne of the 
Roman empire — Constantine and the -'flaming cross" — St. 
Paul's church under the shadow of the throne of the Caesars — 
Its gradual and mighty usurpations under successive bishops — 
Finally crystalizes into the stupendous structure of the Papal 
despotism — Fearful corruptions of Christianity — The saturnalia 
of the church — A few true hearts revolt, and strive to reinau- 
gurate primitive Christianity — Rome labels the preachers of the 
reform "heretics," and persecutes — The dissent spreads — In- 
fects Southern France — The Paulicians — Their Manichean and 
Gnostic errors — Various names by which they were known — 
Their mission — Ecclesiastical din — The Vaudois — They clasp 
hands with St. Paul and bring in the epoch of Luther 27 

CHAPTER II. 

Ancient political divisions — The Count of Toulouse — Languedoc 
and Provence — The garden of mediaeval Europe — Egyptian 
darkness covers Western Europe through the feudal ages — The 
southern provinces of France an exception — Intellectual char- 
acter of the Provencals — Their elegant language — Fostered let- 
ters — The exiled arts quit for their schools the old Hesperi- 
des — Their republicanism — The Moriscoes — Culture of these 
descendants of the Magi and the Chaldeans — The Mahome- 
tan principle of conquest surrendered — Civilization and toler- 
ance enthroned in the Spanish peninsula — Commercial inter- 
course with the Moriscoes brings civilization into Southern 
. France — The early Spaniards — Their tolerant character — The 
Troubadours — The minstrels level their satirical verses at the 
widespread abuses of the Papal see — The epigram of Pierre 
Cardinal — The Provencals hold the church of Piome in con- 
tempt — This preexisting prejudice prepares them to receive 
the primitive faith — The apostolic altar in the valleys of Pied- 
ment — Peter of Bruys, Henry, and Arnold of Brescia light their 



4 



CONTENTS. 



torches at the pure Piedinontese altar, and carry tne primitive 
light of Christianity into the Provencal territories — The reform- 
ed congregation at Orleans, in France — Its fate — Peter Waldo — 
Is converted, commences to teach, and translates the Latin Bible 
into the vernacular of Gaul — Eomanism and Christianity con- 
trasted — The Vaudois creed — Its pure Protestantism — Rapid 
spread of the Yaudois tenets 3G 

CHAP TEE in. 
Pome begins to move — Innocent 111. — His haughty character — • 
Determines to exterminate the Provencal Vaudois — His wily 
programme — Places Languedoc and Provence under an inter- 
dict — Confiscates the property of the reformers — Gives it to the 
faithful, and anathematizes all who refuse to seize on the usurp- 
ed estates — Ecclesiastical commissions — St. Dominic — Incep- 
tion of the Inquisition — Sketch of its rise and progress — Arbi- 
trary proceedings of the Inquisitors in Languedoc — Raymond 
YL count of Toulouse — Raymond Roger, viscount of Alby — 
Pierre de Castelnovo, the papal legate — Dictates a dishonorable 
policy to Count Raymond — The count withholds his assent — 
The legate excommunicates him — Innocent supports Castel- 
novo's audacity — The Papal letter — Raymond compelled to 
submit to Home — Assassination of the Legate — Fury - of the 
pontiff — His savage bull — Origin of the Papal dogma, that 1 4 no 
faith is to be kept with heretics" — The word "crusade" ex- 
tended to cover the atrocity of sectarian persecution 50 

CHAPTEE IV. 

Innocent HI. dispatches indulgence letters into France, and sum- 
mons the faithful to take the cross against the Yaudois — The 
monks of Citeaux preach the crusade — Enthusiastic response 
to their fanatical appeals — The great nobles assume the cross — 
Languedoc filled with terror — The Count of Toulouse and the 
Viscount of Alby endeavor to avert the storm — Supercilious 
conduct of the Papal legate — Count Raymond's timidity — He 
yields every thing, and offers to head the crusade — Heroism of 
the Viscount of Alby — He counsels resistance, and refuses to 
give his subjects over to the merciless harry of the crusaders — 
Retires into his states and prepares for their defence — Count 
Raymond applies to Philip Augustus and to Otho of Germany 
for assistance — His deputation to the pope — Equivocating 
morality of the pontiff— Raymond Roger refuses to be hood- 
winked — The crusaders put themselves in motion in the spring 
of 1209 — Their strength — The rendezvous— Couut Raymond's 



CONTEXTS. 



protest — Innocent appoints Milon, his secretary, legate — A not- 
able admission — Servility of the Count of Toulouse — Submits 
to be disciplined before the altar — Assumes the cross against 
his subjects and against his nephew - - - 63 

CHAPTER V. 

The crusaders wind into the valleys of the Rhone — Count Ray- 
mond meets them at Valence, and conducts them to Mont- 
pellier — The Viscount of Alby makes a last effort for peace — ■ 
Avows himself a true servant of the church, but refuses to 
yield the principle of toleration — Imperturbability of the leg- 
ate — He does not desire an accommodation, his object is ex- 
termination — The viscount quits Mantpellier sad but resolute — 
Throws himself into his strong-hold of Beziers, and awaits the 
onset — His noble conduct — The crusaders advance and bum 
Villemur — The siege of Chasseneuil — Its vigorous defence and 
final capitulation — A ghastly carnival — The crusaders press 
forward to the siege of Beziers — Like Attila, they leave no 
living thing behind them — Beziers — It is summoned to surren- 
der — "Wily harangue of the bishop of the city — The citizens are 
advised to save themselves by juelding their Vaudois fellow- 
townsmen to the avengers of -the faith — Their noble reply — 
Unexpected capture of Beziers — Scenes of horror — The unglut- 
ted crusaders leave Beziers a smoking tomb, and lay siege to the 
viscount's strong-hold and capital of Carcassonne — Situation of 
the city — Courage of its defenders — The king of Aragon acts 
as mediator — His visit to Raymond Roger — The admission of 
that prince — The crusaders are apprized of the desperate con- 
dition of the besieged — Terms offered by the abbot of Citeaux — 
The viscount's heroic response — Departure of Don Pedro — A 
general assault — The crusaders are unsuccessful — The chiefs 
of the war resort to diplomacy — The viscount's visit under a 
safe-conduct — Practical application of the Jesuit doctrine, that 
"no faith is to be kej:>t with heretics" — Raymond Roger a 
prisoner in the clutches of Simon de AEontfort 7-i 

CHAPTER YI. 

Effect of the perfidy of the crusaders upon the inhabitants of Car- 
cassonne — The yawning cavern — A midnight march through 
the oozy bowels of the earth — Safety at last — Amazement ol 
the crusaders — A great city deserted — Where are the citi- 
zens? — The abbot of Citeaux's lying proclamation — He will not 
be cheated of a holocaust — The states of the Viscount of Alby 



6 



CONTENTS. 



subdued — The crusaders begin to separate — The inquisitors, the 
legate, and the abbot of Citeaux not satisfied — The Vaudois are 
conquered, but not exterminated — The work of the Inquisitors 
not accomplished — They desire to obliterate the tracks of civili- 
zation — Until they do this, reform will nourish despite the sacri- 
fice of hecatombs of victims — The legate's council — Who will 
accept the conquered territories? — The duke of Burgundy's 
reply — The great lords refuse the gift — Simon de Montfort is 
summoned to accept them — The comedy of refusal — The butch- 
er of the Vaudois finally succumbs to the abbot's eloquence — 
Greedy and fanatical ambition rewarded — The bar sinister no 
impediment to a foremost rank among the great feuditories — ■ 
De Montfort enters upon His usurped dominions — Fears the 
legitimate sovereign, whom he holds in his dungeon — The poi- 
son rids him of a rival, and quiets his conscience — The close of 
Raymond Roger's earthly career — Count Raymond again — A 
recreant troubadour — Fouquet de Marseille made bishop of 
Toulouse — ■Count Raymond's foes — Their intrigues to prevent 
his reconciliation with the church — The council of St. Gilles — 
The count is again excommunicated, and his states are given 
up to pillage and devastation — The preaching of a new cru- 
sade — Alice de Montmorency — De Montfort's new army of 
crusaders — Renewed atrocities— Heroism of the Vaudois — The 
castle of Minerva— The assembly of martyrs — How God's chil- 
dren could die — The ecstacy of religious devotion — The mar- 
tyr heroism of devoted womanhood — In the flames — The 
siege of Termes — An attempted escape — De Montfort's orgy— 
The Provencal territories completely surrendered to the dom- 
ination of demoniacs 87 



CHAPTER VII. 

The hunted stag at bay— The alliance — De Montfort is ready- 
Siege of Lavaur — A frightful massacre — The Vaudois "burned 
alive with the utmost joy " — De Montfort before Toulouse — The 
White and Black Companies — The monster baffled — The hun- 
ter hunted — De Montfort's cry for aid — New swarms of fanat- 
ics swoop upon Languedoc — De Montfort's ferocious activity — 
Death of Count Raymond's ally, Don Pedro of Aragon — Death of 
Innocent III. — His character — Count Raymond in the field — 
Reenters Toulouse — De Montfort once more besieges it — The 
struggle before the city — The "Cat" — The sally — De Montfort 
at mass — His last charge — Death smites him in the hour of vic- 
tory — Consternation of the crusaders, and end of the siege of 
Toulouse 102 



CONTEXTS. 



7 



CHAPTER Vm. 

A momentary respite — The gathering of another tempest — Death 
of Count Raymond VL — His character — An instance of Rome's 
spiteful vengeance — Accession of Count Raymond VII. — Death 
of Philip Augustus — Fouquet, bishop of Toulouse, at Rheims 
at the coronation of St. Louis — He instigates the young king 
to proclaim a new crusade — Louis assents — The vulture on the 
wing once more — He swoops upon the defenceless prey — The 
cruelties of De Montfort's regime are reenacted — The crusaders 
spare neither man in their wrath nor woman in their lust — 
The Inquisition established in France as a permanent institu- 
tion by the Council of Toulouse in 1229 — The tests of heresy — 
Two canons of the Council of Toulouse — The bribe — The phi- 
losophy of Rome — The Yaudois refuse to den} r their Saviour — 
The storm still rages — The conflict has a political phase — The 
final catastrophe — The Yaudois exterminated, or driven into 
exile — They continue steadfast in the faith to the last, and earn 
a right to clasp hands with St. Paul, their elder brother in 
Christ Jesus - 112 

CHAPTER IX. 

The crime against the Yaudois not the separate wickedness of a sin- 
gle nationality, but a mosaic of infamy — Postponement of the 
Reformation for three centuries — Even then some of the Roman- 
ic races do not accept it — The Yaudois born out of time — Chris- 
tendom not prepared to receive their truth— ' 'From the sixth hour 
there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour " — The Vat- 
ican congratulates itself — Rome imagines that she has strangled 
the Reformation — The interregnum means postponement, not 
conquest— The Yaudois are scattered, not exterminated — "Nei- 
ther death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature," can separate them from the love of Cod 
which is in Jesus Christ — They become the missionaries of 
mediaeval Europe — They leaven Bohemia through Huss — They 
leaven England through Wickliffe — A historical episode — The 
Yaudois and Louis XII. — The Piedmontese Yaudois — The rival 
factions in Italy — The Cuelphs and the Ghibelines — Europe's 
last effort to clutch the Holy Sepulchre from the Saracen — The 
Yaudois keep aglow the dying embers of the gospel through 
these dismal ages — The darkness which precedes the day — The 
profligacy of the Romish Babylon — A baptism of suffering pre- 
pares the way to a glorious reformation — The agents of re- 



CONTENTS. 



form — The revival of learning — The invention of printing — 
Vaudoisism and humanism the twin laboratories of the Refor- 
mation of the sixteenth century -- 122 

CHAPTER X. 

Le resurrection of reform — Rome sets herself to subdue the new 
rebellion against her politics and theology, using old weapons — ■ 
Leo X. intones his creed from the balcony of the Vatican — The 
responsive voice from the heights Of Wittemberg — Salvation by 
faith in Christ the soul of the Reformation — The struggle of that 
epoch was not a movement towards materialism, as some claim, 
or towards the abolition of Christianity, as the papists charge — 
Its primary object was the reformation of the abuses which cor- 
rupted and deformed the Christian faith — It simply called on man 
to ground his faith, not on the word of a usurping priest, but on 
the infallible word of God — The Sorbonne denounces the re- 
form — Leo anathematizes it from the pontifical throne — Rapid 
spread of Protestantism — Melancthon and Bucer in France — ■ 
Favorable omens — The reign of Francis I. — The Reformation 
grounds itself in France — The court and the prelates alarmed — ■ 
Motives of the French bishops for opposing the Reformation — 
They persuade the king to issue an edict against heresy — A 
reformed congregation dispersed at Meaux — William Briton- 
net — Lefevre of Estaples — Francis I. vacillates — The shuttle- 
cock king goes w T holly over to Rome — An auto da fe — Louis de 
Berquin — The jeer of a Jesuit — Unconquerable vitality of 
faith 13a 

CHAPTER XI. 

)ening phases of the Reformation — Renee of Ferrara — Margaret 
de Yalois — The sister of the king becomes a disciple of the 
reformed theology — Her life at the court — Devotes her life to 
literature and divinity — Her political talents — Her beauty — 
Her benefactions to the dissenters — The constable Anne of 
Montmorenci's advice to the king — Francis' reply — Margaret 
the mother of French reform — Her influence — Kings are dan- 
gerous missionaries — Conscience the palladium of Protestant- 
ism — Margaret marries Henry d'Albret, king of Navarre — Writes 
toleration on the first line of the first page of her code of laws — 
The ' ' Evangelicals " have now an asylum — The persecution rages 
with increased vehemence — Francis personally attends at an 
auto da fi — The cardinal of Tournon becomes the king's ad- 
viser after Margaret's departure for Navarre — His pride and 



CONTENTS. 



9 



bigotry — Holds the king firm in his determination to extermi- 
nate heresy — Two anecdotes — The gloomy prospects of reform — 
The ascendency of women at the court — Virtue and honor bar- 
tered for station and influence — The ingredients of a gallant 
court — The rival factions — The Duchess D'Etampes — Diana de 
Poitiers — The court soil not productive of the growth of Chris- 
tian principle — The saying of Diana of Poitiers — -The court 
must spin through its giddy dance — The orgies at the capital 
do not stay the merciless steps of the inquisitors — "France 
scents burning bodies in every breeze " 146 

CHAPTEK XII. 

Apostles of the faith — Count Sigismond of Haute Flamme — His 
conversion — Connection with Margaret of Navarre — Devotion 
to evangelical truth — His frank courage — A grand idea — Sigis- 
mond's labors with the surrounding priests and nobles — Lam- 
bert's witticism — Pierre Toussaint — Toussaint in the abbot of 
St. Antoine's dungeon — Liberty at -last — Repairs to Paris — 
Margaret offers him an asylum — The queen of Navarre is 
surrounded by a troop of hypocrites — Who will expose their 
wiles? — Toussaint's conversation with Lefevre and Roussel — • 
The timid scholars — Their optimism — Toussaint's grief — 
Quits the court — His prayer — William Farel — His character — 
His life as eloquent as his sermons — Farel's visit to Gap — An 
incident in his apostolic career — Over the walls — The reforma- 
tion constantly gains strength — It lacks unity and symmetry — 
"Who shall organize the Reformation? — Sigismond, Farel, -and 
(Ecolampadius are in doubt — John Calvin appears 157 

CHAPTEK XIII. 

Calvin's birth — Family — He is a man of the people — Calvin at the 
college of La Marche — Mathurine Cordier — Master and pupil — 
Calvin belongs to the strictest sect of the Roman communion — 
The saying at the college — The Noyon boy's devotion to study — 
• The red hat and scarlet gown of a cardinal glitter before the 
eyes of his father — The visit home — A breeze of the gospel in the 
air — Does Calvin heed it? — Opposes the Reformation at the 
outset, in the college wrangles — Is won to examine the reformed 
theology — A terrible struggle — Examination means emancipa- 
tion — Calvin's conversion — His prayer — Breaks with Rome- 
Calvin at Orleans — At Bourges — He "wonderfully advances the 

1* 



10 



CONTENTS. 



kingdom of God" — A life of vicissitudes — Calvin a fugitive — 
Bepairs to Geneva, en route for Germany — His journey sum- 
marily arrested — Geneva — Beauty of its situation — Its early 
history — The three strata — Liberties of the citizens — The 
counts of Geneva — The bishops — Their worldliness and politi- 
cal ambition — The conflicting jurisdictions of the counts and the 
bishops — Fierce and prolonged internecine conflicts — Pierre 
de Savoy — The paladin sails by moonlight on lake Leman — 
The dukes of Savoy — They hunger for Geneva — Apply to the 
pope for the secular authority — Alarm of the citizens — They 
determine to resist — "Rome ought not to lay its paw upon 
kingdoms" — "No alienation of the city, or of its territories; 
this we swear" — The duke withdraws his petition — Pope 
Martin V. — His tarry at Geneva — His dislike of the franchises 
of the citizens — "The license of popular government" incom- 
patible with the papal rule — The pontiffs usurpation — Instal- 
ment of a bishop prince— The Genevese acquiesce for a time 
in sullen discontent — The revolt — Apply to the Helvetic con- 
federacy for aid — The struggle, though at first a political one, 
soon assumes a religious phase— The Genevese converted to the 
Reformation — Farel at Geneva — His influence there — Farel 
constrains Calvin to stay — Calvin's unveiling acquiescence — 
The two preachers are exiled on account of the strictness of 
their discipline — Calvin a wanderer once more — Correspond- 
ence with Melancthon — With Bucer — With Capito — Calvin re- 
called to Geneva — -Condition of his return — Comes back as a 
conqueror— Sets to work — New-models the civil code — Educa- 
tion — Calvin organizes the Reformation — The ' ' Christian Insti- 
tutes" — Calvin completes the temple of God — Geneva the 
school of the Reformation— Influence of its disciples — Guy de 
Bres, and the Netherlands — John Knox and Scotland — England 
and France inoculated with Calvinism — John Calvin's influ- 
ence in moulding the religious character of America 168 

CHAPTEE XIV. 

A parliamentary edict — Two martyrs — Margaret of Navarre — The 
"mirror of a sinful soul" — The Sorbonne in council — The syn- 
dic's harangue — "This is deadly heresy" — A raid on the book- 
sellers' shops — The faculty deliberate — What shall be Margaret's 
punishment? — A monk's advice — A comedy — The king's an- 
ger — He quells the Sorbonne — A tragedy — The end of the Vau- 
dois — The testimony of the abbe Anquetil and of De Thou — 
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church" 182 



CONTENTS. 



11 



CHAPTER XV. 

Death of Francis I.— Succession of Henry II. — Condition of the 
kingdom — French politics — The four court factions — Anne de 
Montmorenci — Diana de Poitiers — Catharine de' Medici — The 
Guises — Inception of the house of Lorraine — Claude de Guise — 
His six sons — The rage of faction — The coalition — The selfish- 
ness of cabals — Francis duke of Guise — His character — Mont- 
morenci versus the confederacy — The constable persuades the 
princes of the blood to join his party — Anthony de Bour- 
bon — Prince de Conde — The house of Chatillon — Odet, Cardinal 
de Chatillon — Gaspard Chatillon de Coligny — Francis Chatillon 
D'Andelot — D'Andelot joins the [Reformation — The colonel- 
general before the king — A noble avowal — In the dungeon of 
Melan — Popularity of the reformed doctrines — The meeting at 
the Pre'-aux Cleves — D'Andelot at liberty — Paul IV. is cha- 
grined — Character of the Admiral de Coligny — The two broth- 
ers - 196 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Henry's double mission — The dishonorable truce — Abdication of 
Charles V. — An anecdote — The persecution renewed — King 
Henry and the old domestic— The tumult at Paris — The edict 
of Chateaubriand — The cardinal's scheme — The king's assent — 
The Parliament an veto — Sequier's speech — The Jesuits — 
Ignatius Loyola — Character of the "Society of Jesus" — En- 
deavor to obtain legal recognition — The bishop's reply — Opin- 
ion of the Sorbonne — Momentary failure — Military affairs — 
Political changes — Treaty of Chateau Cambrisis — The cardinal's 
counsel — An atrocious plot — Henry and the Parliament — The 
debate — Louis IV. — Anne Du Bourg — Henry's rage — The 
arrest — The tournament— Death and character of Henry II. — 
Piise of the name ' Huguenots ' 208 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The end of a historic rivalry — The court revolutionized — The 
Guises in power — Francis II. and Mary Stuart — The king in 
' duress — The cabal — An auto da fe — Trial and execution of 
Anne Du Bourg — Incorporation of the "Company of Jesus" — 
Alarm of the Huguenots — Discontent of the nobility — The con- 
spiracy — The castle La Ferte — Conde the chief, La Eenaudie 
the nominal head of the confederates — The ruined chateau in 
the outskirts of Nantes — The conspirators at the rendezvous — 
La Rcnaudie's harangue— The oath — The court at Blois — The 



12 



CONTENTS. 



Jdng and queen — An indiscreet admission — The attorney's 
perfidy — The Guises in possession of the plot — A hunting gal- 
lop from Blois to Amboise — Francis and the duke of Guise — 
Suspicions — Coligny and D'Andelot summoned to Amboise — 
Coligny's appeal for religious enfranchisement — He is support- 
ed by the moderates of the Council — The edict — Conde at Am- 
boise — The hour at hand — Forewarned is forearmed — The at- 
tack — The death of La Renaudie — Rout of the conspirators — 
The Duke Nemours and Castejnau — A cavalier's idea of honor — 
The Guises triumph — Revocation of Coligny's edict — Conde 
arrested — Sanguinary course of the government — Conde and 
the duke of Guise — The conspiracy ends with a liberation — A 
page from contemporaneous history - -- 225 

CHAPTER. XVIII. 

Assembly of the notables — Death of Olivier — L'Hopital succeeds 
to the chancellorship — Coligny's appeal — Guise and the admi- 
ral — Progress of the word — Conversations — The plot — Appre- 
hension of the Bourbon princes — The citation — Navarre and 
Conde "at Orleans — Conde's arrest — The trial — The condemna- 
tion — The soldier and the confessor — Conde's firmness — The 
wife's petition — Navarre's exertions — A projected assassina- 
tion — A lawyer's stratagem — Death of Francis II. 242 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Accession of Charles IX. — Regency of Catharine de' Medici — Lib- 
eration of Conde — The new-modelled cabinet — First measures 
of the new administration — Convention of the states-general — 
Effort to exile the princes of Lorraine — Navarre's motion — The 
Triumvirate — The Spanish ambassador — Condition of parties— 
The edict of July — A mock reconciliation — Colloquy of Poissy— 
The leading disputants — L'Hopital's address — Beza's plea— 
The response of Tournon — The cardinal of Lorraine's ha- 
rangue — Results of the colloquy — Catharine's letter to the 
pope — The pontiff's alarm — The attempt to suborne the king 
of Navarre — His final fall — Dismay of Jane D'Albret — The two 
queens — Characteristic speeches — Renewed assembly of the 
states-general at St. Germain — The new decree 255 

CHAPTER XX. 

The intercepted letter — Conde's confession of faith — Navarre's 
intrigues — The double banishment — The results of a compro- 
mise — The scene at Yassy — Atrocities — Guise's coup d'etat — ■ 



CONTENTS. 



13 



Movements of the Triumvirate — Conde's manifestoes— Enthu- 
siasm of the Huguenots — An anecdote — Character of the Hu- 
guenot leaders — Conde attempts to play Machiavelli— The faux 
p as — Foreign alliances — Marches and counter-marches — France 
rent by demoniacs — The twin demons 272 

CHAPTEE XXI. 

Military operations — Siege of Rouen — Death of Navarre — His 
character — The advance on Paris— The battle of Drenx — Cap- 
ture of Conde and the constable — Guise's elation— Siege of 
Orleans — Assassination of the duke of Guise — The charge 
against Coligny — The halt of civil war before the bier of Fran- 
cis Guise - - - 28 6 

CHAPTEE XXII. 

The queen mother regains her supremacy — Conde signs a peace — ■ 
Consternation in Coligny's camp — Provisions of the treaty — 
The admiral grounds arms — His precautions — Catharine's cha- 
grin — Conde's reply — Expulsion of the English — Anger of 
queen Elizabeth — Wasted hours — Encroachments upon the 
edict of pacification — The Reformation compromised by its 
political chiefs — The rationale of reform — Politics of the Vati- 
can — The pontiffs audacity — Anger of Charles IX. — Sine die 
adjournment of the Council of Trent— History of its sessions — 
Arrest of Du Moulin — Coligny's intercession — The king pro- 
claimed of age — The royal journey — Catharine de' Medici and 
the duke of Alva — The queen mother and the Papal nuncio — 
First murmurs of St. Bartholomew — Alva's epigram — Assembly 
of notables at Moulins — Intrigues to entrap the Huguenots — - 
The new edict— Charles IX. and the admiral 297 

CHAPTEE XXIII. 

Unpopularity of the edict of pacification — The cardinal of Lor- 
raine at court — Projects of the king of Spain — The plotters at 
Paris — Augmentation of the army — Secret council of the Hu- 
• guenot chiefs at Chatillon-sur-Loing — The counterplot — Con- 
de' before the capital — Negotiations — Battle of St. Denis — 
Death of Montmoreuci — A leaf from Brantome — The German 
auxiliaries — An instance of the influence of religious enthusi- 
asm — Renewed pacification — Dissatisfaction of the Huguenot 
leaders — Insidious assaults upon the reformers — Conduct of 
the Romish clergy — "No faith need be kept with heretics" — 



CONTENTS. 



Emeutes of the canaille — Catharine's perfidy — The plot to seize 
Conde' and Coligny — Their narrow escape — Consequent post- 
ponement of the St. Bartholomew — The rendezvous at Ro- 
chelle — Charles IX. and the duke of Anjou — Renewed hostili- 
ties — The battle of Jarnac — Defeat of the Huguenots, and heroic 
death of Conde — Conde's character — Coligny saves the army — 
Jealousies and intrigues of the court — Death of the duke of 
Deux-Ponts — Death of D'Andelot — The admiral's grief — Dis- 
sensions in the Huguenot ranks — Noble conduct of Coligny — 
Jane D'Albret in the camp— Her appeal for union — Young 
Conde and the prince of Beam — Henry of Navarre proclaimed 
generalissimo of the Huguenots — Coligny the real chief — Popu- 
larity of the admiral — Rattle of Mincontour and rout of the 
Huguenots — -Coligny's genius and energy repairs the defeat — 
The admiral's victory at Arnay-le-Duc — Alarm of the court — 
Catharine dissembles — The tragic comedy of reconciliation — 
Pacification — The guarantees--- — 313 

CHAPTER NXIV. 

The court changes front — The. age of craft — The wily queen 
mother caresses the Huguenots — Jane D'Albre't and the ad- 
miral fix their residence at Rochelle — Artifices to draw them 
to the capital — Catharine's consummate hypocrisy — She in- 
structs the king to use every art to gain the confidence of the 
Huguenots — Marriage of Charles IX. — The reformers are de- 
ceived — Numbers repair to Paris and join in the court Jttes — 
A new scheme — Projected marriage of Margaret de Valois and 
the prince of Beam — -Sketch of the early life of Henry of Na- 
varre — Reluctance of Jane D'Albret to accede to the match — 
A mother's instinct — Duplicity of the king — The wary admiral 
is hoodwinked— Journey of Charles IX. to Louvaine — Meeting 
of the two courts — Charles IX. and Coligny — Hypocrisy of the 
young king — Definitive arrangements are made for the nuptials 
of Navarre and Margaret — The time appointed — Catharine's 
sardonic satisfaction — The treacherous calm— Jane D'Albret at 
the Louvre — Her sudden death — Infatuation of Coligny — The 
warning — The admiral's project — The French court listens to 
the recital of his plans with courteous but perfidious atten- 
tion — The ripening holocaust - - 336 

CSAPTEE XXV. 

A catastrophe predicted — The bloody nuptials — The wedding on 
the scaffold — Attempt to assassinate the admiral — The old sol- 
dier's sangfroid — Exclamation of the king — Efforts of the court 



CONTEXTS. 



15 



to allay suspicion — Energy of the conspirators — Proposition to 
quit the capital — Coligiiy and the Vidame of Chartres — A dia- 
bolical ruse — The cordon of masked executioners— The mid- 
night signal — The frenzied populace — " Blood! blood!"' — Ta- 
vannes' witticism — Pezou the butcher — The queen-mother's 
perfumer — Cruce's boast — Guise flies to the admiral — The 
entrance of the bravos — Coligny's awakening — Question and 
answer — Coligny's composure — He prays — "Art thou Coli- 
gny?" — The admiral's reply — The martyrdom — Petrucci's an- 
nouncement — Incredulity of Guise — Coligny's corpse is flung 
from the window — Brutality of Guise — Awful treatment of the 
admiral's remains— Charles IX. at the gibbet of Montfaucon — 
The king quotes the atrocious Latin of Vitellius — The final 
sepulchre — Scenes of horror — The king's ferocity — The window 
of the Louvre — Charles amuses himself— Fanaticism of the 
abandoned beauties of the court — The courtesans transmuted 
into harpies — Barbarous conduct of the brazen wantons — Ap- 
palling spectacle of Paris by daylight — .The massacre spreads 
through France — Isolated instances of humanity — Xoble con- 
duct of the Count de Tende — Of the Count de Charny — Of the 
governor of Auvergne — Of the commander of Bayonne — A 
ghastly resume — Shall Conde and Navarre be spared? — A page 
from the memoirs of the royal bride— The princes and the 
king — Conde's candor — The decision — "The mass, death, or 
the bastile" — The king's demoniacal glee — The well-learned 
lesson— The trophies of the massacre — Pibrae's query — The 
proclamation — Mingled atrocity and dissimulation of the king- 
Renewal of the '-'Paris matins" — Wild fantasies — -Navarre's 
prodigy — The clotted drops of blood upon the table — An hour 
at midnight by the bed-side of Charles IX, — Wail of the phan- 
tom voices — The king's agony — "Conscience does make cow- 
ards of us all" 348 

CHAPTEE XXTI. 

European effect of the massacre of St. Bartholomew — The news 
in England — Opinion of Germany — The pleas in justification — 
Borne greets the news with acclamations, bonfires, an illu- 
. urination, and a high mass celebrated by the sovereign pontiff 
in person — The honorary medal — Equivocal morality — The 
Amen of Madrid — Ferocious joy of Philip II. — Witticism of the 
admiral of Castile — Results of the massacre in France — Firm- 
ness and energy of the Huguenots — The confederation — The 
appeal to arms — The siege of Bochelle decided on — Sketch of 
the history of Bochelle — Preparations for the defence — The 



16 



CONTENTS. 



solitary sentinel — La Noue's mission — The interview — Noble 
conduct of the Rochellois — Disaffection in the camp of the 
besiegers — Anjou's ennui — Eochelle triumphant — The pacifi- 
cation of 1573 — Terms of the treaty — Election of Anjou to the 
throne of Poland — He quits France for Warsaw — Last hours of 
Charles IX. — The confession to Ambrose Pare — The dying 
monarch and Henry of Navarre — The whispered caution — An 
awful death-bed 368 

CHAPTEE XXVII. 

The Polish courier — Regency of Catharine de' Medici — Effects of 
despotism — The new coalition — Policy of the queen-mother — 
Henry III. receives intelligence of his brother's death — The 
clandestine departure — The arrival — Catharine's flattery — 
Death of the Cardinal of Gonaive — Meeting of the insurgents 
at Milland — The pledge — The king before Livron — Henry is 
hooted — Disaffection of Alen^on — Battle of Dormans — Navarre's 
protestation — Peace — Brantome's epigram — Davila's state- 
ment — Catharine's subtlety 384 

CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

General dissatisfaction — Character of Henry III. — Precautions of 
the Huguenots — Action of the Ultramontane party — Rise of the 
League — The cabinet at Joinville —The covenant — Influence of 
Spain — Activity of the League — Meeting of the States-general at 
Blois — Henry's alarm — Resolution of the king — Guise's de- 
mand — The deputation — -Navarre's reply — Answer of Conde 
and D'Amville — Recommencement of the war — Edict of Poi- 
tiers — The "Lovers' war" — Renewed pacification 393 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Death of Alencon — Energy of the League — Rendezvous of the 
conspirators — The decision — The traitorous treaty — Fears of 
the king — The League startled— Epernon and Navarre — The 
manifesto of the "Holy Union" — Henry's counter declaration — 
Success of Guise — The ignominious treaty — Navarre's aston- 
ishment - His whiskers turn white in a night —Activity of the 
Huguenots — The proposition — Commencement of hostilities — 
Death of Gregory XIII. — The new pope — The brutum fulmen — 
Effect on the League — Moral effect — Action of the Swiss can- 
tons — The bull in Germany — Navarre takes the field — Battle 
of Coutras — Rout of the royalists, and death of the duke of 
Joyeuse — Navarre's criminal conduct — He plays the carpet- 
knight- --- 403 



CONTENTS. 



17 



CHAPTEK XXX. 

Guise's laurels— Envy of the king — Guise's popularity — The fami- 
ly meeting at Nancy — Real object of the house of Lorraine — 
The masked policy — An insolent petition — Half measures — ■ 
Guise at Paris— Mob enthusiasm — The duke and the queen- 
mother — Guise and the king — "Vive la Hypocrisie" — Paris 
in the olden times — Catherine's ruse — Escape of the king — 
Memville's announcement — Negotiations — Convention of the 
States-general — Guise's manoeuvres — Muddled condition of 
Erench politics — The advice of a soldier — A lawyer's counsel — 
Assassination of Henry de Guise—" The king of Paris is dead " — 
Unwonted vigor of the king — News of the tragedy at Paris — 
Frenzy of the capital — Death of Catharine de' Medici — Henry's 
embarrassment — A pontiffs influence — The enraged League 
will not negotiate — The king appeals to the Huguenots — Meet- 
ing of Navarre and Henry III. — The advance on Paris — 
Mayenne's retreat — Siege of Paris — Eamine chokes the capi- 
tal — The power of fanaticism — Jacques Clement — How he was 
heated — Assassination of Henry III. — 416 

CHAPTEK XXXL 

The enthronement of a Huguenot — Joy of Ultramontane France — 
The Pontiffs blasphemy over the murder of Henry III. — Activ- 
ity of the new king — Difficulties of the succession— Condition 
of the League — Military successes of Henri Quatre — Battle of 
Ivry — "The white plume of Navarre" — The advance upon the 
capital — The starving metropolis — Manoeuvres of the duke of 
Parma — Death of a phantom king — The decision of the League — 
Henry's alarm — The struggle of a human soul — The king deter- 
mines to abjure Protestantism — The sad scene at St. Denis — 
Effect in the Huguenot ranks — Mornay's letter — The depu- 
ties — General acquiescence in the new regime — Course of the 
Jesuits — Their regicidal doctrines — The attempted assassina- 
tion of the king — Indictment of the "Society of Jesus" — Ar- 
nauld's plea — The address of Louis Dolle — Intense popular 
feeling against the Jesuits- — The thwarted knife of Chatel — 
• Banishment of the Jesuits — D'Aubigne's epigram — A warning 
and a prophecy - --- 438 

CHAPTEK XXXII. 

Disordered condition of the kingdom — The king devotes himself 
to the amelioration of internal affairs — Signature of the edict 



18 



CONTENTS. 



of Nantes — Its provisions — Feeling of the papists — The king 
and the mnrmnrers— Sully's rlsumi — Henry's marriage — Reen- 
trance of the Jesuits into France — Catharine of Bourbon — She 
becomes the chief court pillar of the Huguenots — Mornay's 
letter to the princess — The reply — Catharine's influence with 
her brother — The Huguenot reunion at the Louvre — The 
snubbed delegate's — Attempt at reconciliation — Catharine's 
marriage -Her persistent faith — Her death — Henry's grief — 
The holy father's insinuation -The king's spirited answer — 
The royal tour — Anecdotes — Repose of the Huguenots — The 
reputed plot —A Jesuit bubble — Henry's last years — The mys- 
terious project— Mary de' Medici —The coronation — The king's 
buoyancy — An after chill — The ride — The narrow street — The 
assassination — Seizure of Eavaillac — Precautions — The queen's 
terror — Consternation — An awful comedy — The rack brings 
forth no confession — Singular conduct of the judiciary — 
L'Etoil's solution of the enigma— Perefixe's witticism 459 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Henry's family — Succession of Louis XIII. — D'Epernon's boldness 
secures the regency for Mary de' Medici — The queen's apart- 
ments resound with songs and laughter — Mirth on one side, 
the murdered dead upon the other — The Concinis — The 
change — Alarm of the Huguenots — Their chiefs — Bigotry and 
court cabal — The regency ends in a tragedy — The new favor- 
ite — Conduct of the Huguenots — The descent on Beam — Clam- 
ors of the Romish clergy — The arrit — The king at Pau — Cele- 
bration of the Mass in the ancient citadel of the Reformation — 
Recommencement of hostilities — Diversified nature of the con- 
test — Pacification on the basis of the edict of Nantes — Riche- 
lieu enters the cabinet — His threefold object — The duke of 
Buckingham — His plans — Richelieu's opportunity — His saga- 
cious programme — Wily diplomacy — Siege of Rochelle — The 
gal L int defence — Capture of Rochelle — Peace again — Pagans to 
Richelieu — The Huguenots stripped of all political impor- 
tance—Momentary cessation of persecution — The cause — The 
synod at Charenton — The deputation — The demand 475 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

The Huguenots enjoy twenty years of peace— Death of Richelieu — 
Regency of Anne of Austria — Mazarin — His policy — Rise of 
the English commonwealth— Cromwell's intercession — Model 
behavior of the Huguenots — Mazarin's testimony— D'Harcourt 



CONTENTS. 



19 



and the deputies of Montauban — Louis' declaration — Death 
of Mazarin — Louis XIY. assumes the direction of affairs — 
The reign of courtesans and Jesuits — The policy of corrup- 
tion — Steadfastness of the middle classes — Satanic ingenuity 
exercised in enforcing proselytism — The infinite hard spiritual 
fights of God's suffering children — The enemies of the faith- 
Steady progress of the government from one tyranny to anoth- 
er — The commencement of emigration — The prohibitory de- 
cree — Persistence of the Huguenots — "Not principalities nor 
powers can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus" — The rage of persecution — Malignity of the government, 
priest-ridden and corrupt— Pere la Chaise, the king's confess- 
or — The incitement — A Jesuit's weapons — The congenial trini- 
ty — The dragonades — The army of soldiers, and the army of 
priests — Recommencement of emigration — Macauley's estimate 
of Louis XIY. - 491 

CHAPTEE XXXV. 

The "booted missionaries" extend their efforts into all the Hugue- 
not provinces — Pellisson's fund — The lies of the Gazette — ^Ex- 
ultation of the court — Meeting of the Huguenot deputies at 
Toulouse — The determination — Page of the king — The flutter 
in the courtier dove-cote — A leaf from Soulier — The testimony 
of Rulhie're — The alternatives — The demoralization of France — 
The greed for proselytes — Louvois' letter — Noailles' announce- 
ment — Revocation of the edict of Nantes — The lying pream- 
ble — Feature of the revocation — Its effect — The enforcement 
of the decree — Letellier's Nunc dimittis — Grammont's witti- 
cism — The Huguenot pastors — Claude — Conduct of the Hugue- 
nots — Instances of devotion — The heroism of despair — The 
flood-tide of emigration — Frightful depopulation of the king- 
dom — The victims — What it cost to suppress the truth in 
France — Atrocious punishments — Moral results of the proscrip- 
tion—The economic aspect — The compensation 503 

CHAPTEK XXXVI. 

The number of Huguenots who remained in France after the revo- 
cation — Their faithfulness — The liberalization of public opin- 
ion — The law unchanged— The Camisard war — A wholesale 
massacre — The reign of Louis XV. — Increasing humanity of 
the bar — Judges obey justice in disobeying the law — The rise 
of infidelity — Coldness of the philosophical school towards the 
oppressed Huguenots — No points of resemblance between bas- 



20 



CONTENTS. 



tard philosophy and Christianity — The synod at Nismes — The 
yoke grows lighter — The edict of toleration — The four things 
which it granted — Jubilee of the congregations of the wilder- 
ness — The yawning abyss of the Revolution — The "Goddess 
of Reason" — The necessity of religious faith — Napoleon's usur- 
pation — The empire decrees limited toleration — Toleration un- 
der the restoration — Under the second empire — Present condi- 
tion of French Protestantism — Reflections - - - 517 



PREFACE. 



There is no page of history which is at once so 
fascinating in the dramatic interest of its scenes, 
and so momentous as that which records the story 
of the Huguenots — none more worthy of the careful 
study of thoughtful men. Whether judged by its 
motive, its influence, or its episodes, it is equally 
grand. Sublimer than any epic, it depicts a strug- 
gle to renovate the individual, the church, and so- 
ciety at large. 

Isolated phases of the history of the Huguenots 
have been often and vividly portrayed in our Eng- 
lish letters: poets have celebrated many thrilling 
episodes; romancists have given full play to the 
imagination; biographers have recited the lives of 
many illustrious men ; historians have dwelt upon 
numerous stirring scenes : but these are the mosaics 
of history — broken voices, telling half the tale. 

Nearly all of the English histories which bear 
upon this subject, deal with particular periods — with 
the epoch of the Vauclois, with the age of Calvin, 
with the era of Coligny, with the times of Henri 
Quatre, and with collateral reformatory movements. 
This volume covers five of the most eventful centu- 
ries since Christ : it traces the story up through the 



22 



PREFACE. 



ages from the first murmur of dissent from Rome to 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes; and the sketch 
of the Vaudois, those early but much neglected 
teachers, is especially full. The story of the six- 
teenth century, distinctively the era of the Reforma- 
tion, is not as minute in this volume as in some 
others, but an effort has been made to give an au- 
thoritative and succinct detail of all essential in- 
cidents. 

The materials for the compilation of such a work 
are vast, but ill-digested ; to collect and glean them 
has been no slight task. Most of the standard 
authorities have been consulted, and in addition to 
these, a thousand pages of subsidiary matter, per- 
sonal narratives, diaries, memoirs, from the graphic 
pens of contemporaneous actors in the drama, have 
been liberally used. It is not necessary to recapitu- 
late their titles, these will be found scattered through 
the body of the book ; and numerous notes have 
been added, where they seemed likely to enhance 
the interest or to elucidate the text. 

The series of which this volume is one has not 
been written for the instruction of mere scholars ; 
no effort is made to pour light culled from pedantic 
lore upon mooted and nice points of history ; they 
are plain tales of momentous eras. They are 
sketched for the edification of the masses ; written 
with attempted care and accuracy, but compiled 
from every available and authoritative source, and 
with no especial claim to originality. Whatever 
seemed vivid and important and interesting, where- 



PREFACE. 



23 



ever it rested, has been seized and grouped into 

this mature of " times that tried men's souls." 
± 

Of course a volume which covers so broad a 
field must be, in some sense, a summary of events, 
and the problem which the historian has to solve is 
this : How shall an epitoine be made graphic, be 
verified, be made to speak — to tell its own story? 
How shall this summary be made to reflect an ac- 
curate likeness of the past, and appear not to be a 
summary? " The reproduction of contemporary 
documents," remarks a writer whose pages have be- 
come classic, " is not the only business of the his- 
torian. He must do more than exhume from the 
sepulchre in which they are sleeping, the relics of 
men and things of times past, that he may exhibit 
them in the light of day. Men value highly such a 
work, and those who perform it, for it is a neces- 
sary one ; yet it is not sufficient. Dry bones do not 
faithfully represent the men of other clays. They 
did not live as skeletons, but as beings full of life 
and activity. The historian is not simply a resur- 
rectionist ; he needs — strange but necessary ambi- 
tion — a power that can restore the dead to life. 

" When a historian comes across a speech of 
one of the actors in the great drama of human af- 
fairs, he ought to lay hold of it as a pearl ; he 
should weave it into his tapestry in order to relieve 
the duller colors, and give more solidity and brill- 
iancy. Whether the speech be met with in the 
writings of the actor himself, or in those of the 
chroniclers, is a matter of no importance; he should 



24 



PKEFACE. 



take it wherever he finds it. The history which ex- 
hibits men thinking, feeling, and acting as they did 
in their lifetime, is of far higher value than those 
purely intellectual compositions in which the actors 
are deprived of speech and even of life." 

It is a favorite sophism of the Romanist philoso- 
phers, that Protestantism is a mushroom growth — 
an upstart of yesterday, without antiquity or patris- 
tical authority. But epigrammatic sneers do not 
overthrow plain historic facts. The lineage of 
Christian dissent from the tenets of the papacy is 
as venerable and as well ascertained as that of the 
Roman hierarchy. This antique dissent is essen- 
tially that form of belief which is now denominated 
Protestantism. 

" Nothing," says Brook, " has so much ob- 
structed the progress of Christianity in the world as 
the absurd and selfish doctrines, the superstitious 
and slavish practices, which have been blended with 
it by the wicked wit of man. As the religion of 
Jesus Christ was for many centuries almost buried 
under so great a mass of rubbish that it could 
scarcely be distinguished from the foulest pagan- 
ism; so to free Christianity from these heteroge- 
neous mixtures, and to fix it on its only founda- 
tion — faith in Christ — unclouded and unencumbered 
by human appendages, is the noblest work of man, 
and the greatest benefit to society." 

This was the effort of the Huguenots. They 
found the Bible silent, covered with the dust of 
ancient libraries, in some places secured by an iron 



PKEFACE. 



25 



chain— a sad image of the interdict under which it 
was placed in the Christian world. The Reforma- 
tion was an enfranchisement ; these words of Christ 
were its motto : " The truth shall make you free." 

One of the chief lessons of the history of the 
Huguenots, is the sinfulness and the uselessness of 
persecution for religious opinion. It inculcates with 
persuasive eloquence the sacredness of conscience ; 
it is at once an inspiration and an admonition; des- 
canting upon the virtuous actions of the heroes of 
the past who fought the " good fight " for God and 
liberty, it repeats the scriptural command, " Go 
thou and do likewise ;" depicting the vicious diplo- 
macy of the Vatican, whose motto was then, as it 
is now, " The end justifies the means," and that other 
twin maxim, that " no faith is to be Izept with heretics ," 
it warns the present and the future to shun the vices 
of Babylonish Rome ; as Seneca has hymned it : 

"Consnlere patriae ; parcere afflictis ; fera 
Caede abstinere ; tempus atque iras dare ; 
Orbi quietem ; saeculo pacem suo : 
Heec sunima virtus ; petitur hac coelum via." 

Liberty of thought, liberty of faith, liberty of 
worship — this was the aspiration of the Huguenots. 
It is singular what an inevitable tendency there 
was in the movement towards republicanism — as 
if the democracy of Christianity necessitated the 
democracy of politics e But the Christ they taught 
was not simply the apostle of political liberty. 
" The greatest and most dangerous of despotisms," 
says D'Aubign^, "is that beneath which the de- 

Hue:ucnot3. 9 



26 



PBEFACE. 



praved inclination of human nature, the deadly in- 
fluence of the world, sin, miserably subjects the 
human conscience. In order to become free out- 
wardly, men must first succeed in being free in- 
wardly. In the human heart there is a vast country 
to be delivered from slavery — abysses which man 
cannot cross alone, heights which he cannot climb 
unaided, fortresses he cannot take, armies he can- 
not put to flight. In order to conquer in this 
moral battle, man must unite with One stronger than 
himself — the Son of God." 



THE HUGUENOTS- 



CHAPTER I. 

THE VAL'DOIS. 

The venerable muse of liistoiy recites many 
lessons which are full of tears, but upon no occa- 
sion does her voice sink into deeper pathos than 
when she relates the story of French Protestantism. 
From its inception in the grey dawn of the Chris- 
tian era,, down through the dismal centuries to the 
crowning disaster of the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes, it is one prolonged tragedy. The night of 
persecution is only illuminated by the marvellous 
constancy, the patient meekness, the Christian hero- 
ism, and the deep devotion of these earliest Protes- 
tants, who were called the Vaudois at the outset, 
and afterwards the Huguenots. 

God seems to have designed their moving story 
to be the convincing proof not only of the vitality of 
Christianity, but also of the woful cost at which it 
has been planted and preserved. Such a consider- 
ation adds new grandeur to a chapter of history 
which is indeed intrinsically momentous, and makes 
it still more worthy of the attentive study of thought- 
ful minds. 



28 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



History attests that tlie ^sixteenth century was 
the epoch of the Reformation. But revolutions are 
not made — they grow. " First the blade, then the 
ear, then the full corn in the ear."* The Reforma- 
tion had its forerunner in the wilderness— its John 
the Baptist. It is not an isolated fact, a picture 
standing out upon the historic canvas without a 
background. There were preceding intellectual 
insurrections, which, however unhappy in their sep- 
arate denouement, yet led inevitably to that trium- 
phant movement which finally, by the aid of Faust's 
type and Luther's luminous eloquence, enfranchised 
Christendom. 

Anterior to Luther, anterior to that Br ad war- 
dine who, in the cloister of the Oxford Universitj 7 , 
taught "Wickliffe ethics, t apostles were found who 
held tenaciously, and who zealously inculcated, 
both by their precepts and by their blameless lives, 
the essential tenets of the Reformation. And though 
the feudal system, which banished uniformity of 
laws and customs, and made each petty lord a des- 
pot in his own pocket-handkerchief territory, the 
obstacles to free intercourse between the nations, 
the prevailing ignorance, the absence of those 
mighty magicians, steam and the printing-press, 
which have conjured modern civilization into exist- 
ence, and above all, the fanaticism of a priestly oli- 
garchy, united their powerful hands to throttle the 
infant reform of these early teachers, we ought not 

* St, Mark 4: 28. 

t D'Aubigne's Hist, of Ref. in Eng., p. 84. 



THE YAUDOIS. 



29 



for these reasons to withhold our grateful recogni- 
tion of their faithful service and martyrdom; nor 
ought we to remain in ignorance of the momentous 
influence which these voices, raised in the dim twi- 
light of Christianity, exerted upon mediaeval life 
and thought, long before Europe was animated by 
a murmur from the grave of Wiekliffe, from the 
ashes of Huss, or from the vigils of Calvin. 

In the fourth century,* after enduring a perse- 
cution of remorseless severity with that patient, 
unfaltering heroism which is one of its most marked 
characteristics, Christianity, in the person of that 
Constantine who fought under the " flaming cross" 
which his heated imagination had descried in the 
heavens beneath the sun, with the insertion, " In 
hoc signo vinces" — By this sign thou shalt conquer t — 
ascended the Roman throne, and thenceforward, cov- 
ered by the imperial purple, secured protection and 
controlled the government; so that the successive 
bishops of that feeble church which St. Paul had 
planted under the shadow of the throne of the Cae- 
sars, gradually arrogated to themselves the supreme 
authority both in spiritual and in temporal affairs. 
Under Constantine, and indeed so late as Charle- 
magne, these bishops or popes were elected by the 
priests, nobles, and people of Eome, and this election 
could be voided by the veto of the emperor.;!: But 

* Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. XX. 
Moshpim's Eccl. Hist.. (YLurdock's translation.) etc. 

4- ivcisebius' i4 Yita Constantini. " Lib. L.. chap. XXYUX Wad- 
dington's Hist, of the Chh.. Pt. II., p. 82. Gibbon, chap. XX. 

t Waddington's Hist, of the Chh. ; p.' 205. 



30 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the deatli of Charlemagne was the signal for the 
most determined and unscrupulous effort on the 
part of the Roman bishops, not only to free them- 
selves from the imperial trammels by securing the 
independence of papal election, but also to usurp 
dominion over the Western empire, and to subdue 
to unquestioning vassalage the entire ecclesiastical 
and lay bodies."'* Unhappily this utter departure 
from the primitive simplicity and humility was ac- 
quiesced in very generally, until, under Hildebrand 
in the eleventh century, the stupendous structure 
of the papal despotism gloomed upon the misty 
horizon, awful and irresistible. 

Then for five centuries the most atrocious vices, 
the most unchecked wickedness, the most unbridled 
sacerdotal ambition, and the most meaningless cer- 
emonies corrupted and disgraced religion. It was 
the saturnalia of the church. Nominal Christian- 
ity ruled Europe and some portions of the African 
territory which fringed the Mediterranean sea, but 
vital piety lay torpid ; stat nominis umbra. A priest- 
caste anchored itself in the prejudices and supersti- 
tions of the people ; an oligarchy was built up, whose 
right hand was usurped authority linked with spirit- 
ual pride, and whose left hand was dogmatism 
and bigotry fiercer than the pagan. 

Then a few true hearts revolted ;t they yearned 
to reinaugurate the primitive practice of apostolic 
clays, and this was the first dissent. But from the 

* Waddington's Oh. Hist., Pt. III., p. 205. 
f Bossuet's Histoire des Variations. 



THE VAUDOIS. 



31 



germ of that feeble protest lias grown the full flower 
of modern civilization and Christianity. 

It was not until the eleventh century that Eome 
fully awoke to the danger which menaced her unity 
from the new "heresy,"* though from the fourth 
century she had persecuted those isolated individu- 
als who, through rashness or regardless zeal, had 
overstepped that prudence which necessitated se- 
crecy, and ventured openly to proclaim the apostolic 
tenets. t But now acting with her accustomed en- 
ergy, and greatly startled by the spread of the dis- 
sent, and by the increasing boldness of its advo- 
cates, she summoned those mailed crusaders whom 
she had just hurled upon the Saracen, and bade 
them tread out the reform under their iron heels. 

The whole south of Europe was more or less 
infected with the dissenting tenets, but their chief 
seat was in Southern France, that beautiful country 
which extends around the mouth of the Rhone, and 
stretches westward to the city of Toulouse, and 
southward to the Pyrenees — a territory which com- 
prised the old governments of Avignon, Provence, 
and Languedoc. ? 'j 

Christian liberty is indebted to a sect of eastern 
extraction, called, from their professed imitation of 
St. Paul, the Paulicians,% for the impulse given in 
these early centuries to religious inquiry. By the 

0 Intro due. to the Eng. trans, of Sisniondi's Hist, of the Cru- 
sades against the Albigenses, p. 1. f Ibid. 

t Bossuet's Histoire des Variations, Liv. IX. 

§ Sisniondi's Hist, of the Cms. against the Albig., p. 23, Gib- 
bon's Decline and Fall of the E. Empire, Chap. LIT. 



32 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



various chances of war, of trade, of persecution, and 
of missionary enterprise — for they were indefatiga- 
ble proselyters — tlie Paulicians spread from their 
Asiatic cradle throughout Southern Europe with 
singular rapidity; and the suddenness with which 
thev sprang into existence, their simultaneous ap- 
pearance in widely separated sections, - and the 
secrecy with which they taught, gave them an im- 
posing* air of mystery, while it magnified their power 
and resources in the popular estimation. 

Though the Paulicians were certainly, notwith- 
standing their vehement disclaimers, soruewhat 
tainted with the Manichean* errors, and with the 
principles of Gnosticism, t and though they held 

« The Maxichees were an ancient Persian sect who held to 
the tenets of Zoroaster, a man of whom little is known outside of 
his theological code, whose age is problematical, though he flour- 
ished many centuries before the Christian era, and whose history 
is shrouded in the most misty tradition. The leading idea of his 
creed was, that the world derived its present form from two pri- 
mary principles, the one good, the other evil. The former was 
described as the parent of light, and of our rational nature ; the 
latter as the parent of darkness, and of the material system. These 
rival powers were viewed as not only the creators, but the govern- 
ors of this mixed order of affairs. Hence the perpetual conflict 
between good and evil in the natural and moral worlds. But 
above these two powers sat enthroned a supreme deity, Mithra, 
whose emblem was the sun, or in its absence the sacred fire which 
was never extinguished. The heavenly bodies, matter, the souls 
of men — all things were possessed of a species of intelligence, and 
were happy in proportion to their closeness to Mithra, who was 
eventually to refine and restore all intelligences to the great source 
from which they were said to have proceeded. See Vaughan's 
*' Causes of the Corruption of Christianity," Lec. V., p. 170. 

f The extravagant theory which, in the age of the apostles or 
soon afterwards, became known under the designation of Gnos- 



THE VAUDOIS. 



33 



some doctrines which could not but render them 
odious to the apostolic church: as that all matter 
was intrinsically depraved and the source of moral 
evil ; that the universe was shaped from chaos by a 
secondary being, by whom the Mosaic dispensation 
was given, and by whom the Old Testament was 
inspired ; and that the body in which Christ ap- 
peared upon earth, and his crucifixion, were appar- 
ent, not real ;* yet they had not been debauched by 
the enormous corruptions of the Roman see, and 
they abhorred and incessantly inveighed against the 
worship of saints, the use of images, relics, pom- 
pous ceremonies, and ecclesiastical domination. t 

In different countries the Paulicians were known 
by different names. TVhen they crossed the channel 

ticism. and which played an important part in the early history 
of Christianity, was derived in part from the cabalistic dogmas of 
the Alexandrian Jews, in part from the leading doctrines of Pla- 
tonism, but still more from the Oriental or Manichean theology. 
Gnosticism is chiefly distinguished from the Oriental doctrines 
by its adoption of the fanciful conceits of Plato, by its more vision- 
ary details with regard to celestial bodies, and by its admission of 
many of the gospel articles of belief. The " Christian Gnostics," 
as they were called, not only held to the two principles of good 
and evil described by Zoroaster, but they thought that Mithra, or 
Bythus, the supreme deity, had dispatched Christ to the earth as 
his instrument, that he might remedy the evil inflicted on the 
souls of men by Demiurgos, the former of the material world, and 
deliver mankind from their connection with matter, while at the 
same time he procured for them the gift of perfection in divine 
knowledge. From the assumption that the path in which they 
trod could alone lead to this valuable possession, these errorists 
were named Gnostics, which signifies the knowing, the enlightened. 
See Yaughan, Lecture V. , p. 204. 

° Intro, to Eng. trans, of Sismondi. 
t Matter's "Efistoire du Gnosticisme." 



34 THE HUGUENOTS. 

into England they were called Publicans, a prob- 
able corruption of the original designation. In 
Germany they were termed, from the blamelessness 
of their lives, Cathari, or the Pure. In France they 
were named Bos Homos, good men ; while in Italy, 
and on the Alpine frontier, they were styled Pa- 
terinsr 

The mission of the Paulicians appears to have 
been to awaken a spirit of inquiry, to accustom men 
to hear the haughty and fraudulent pretensions of 
the Roman diocese denied, and thus to prepare the 
way for a higher and holier ecclesiastical develop- 
ment. Meantime upon these bold dissenters was 
launched the awful malediction of the church of 
Home. Nor did that merciless hierarchy content 
itself with simply placing them under the ban ; it 
used every weapon which wit could suggest or 
wdiich a Satanic ingenuity could devise to exter- 
minate the heresy. 

While the din of this ecclesiastical strife still 
resounded throughout Europe, in the middle of the 
twelfth century a sect which wrapped itself in the 
apostolic mantle, which carried in its hand the 
primitive taper, and which is venerated by the later 
Protestants, and respected even by the Romanists, 
reared its head and bes;an to teach with authorita- 
tive mildness. The Vaudoist commenced to prop- 

* Gibbon, chap. 54. 

f Authorities differ concerning the origin of the names Vau- 
dois, Waldenses, and Albigenses, for by all three of them were 
these reformers indiscriminately called. Perhaps the most com- 
petent writers have decided that Vaudois was derived from those 



THE YAUDOIS. 



35 



as-ate their tenets in the territories of the Aragonese 
and in Southern France.* 

Standing midway between two mighty revolu- 
tions, the epoch of the Taudois stretches forth a 
hand to both. It leans upon the period of the 
establishment of Christianity as its precursor, and 
brings forward the Reformation of the sixteenth 
century as its direct descendant. What then were 
its salient characteristics ? Of what a warp and 
what a woof was the garment of its Christianity 
woven ? 

Piedmontese valleys whence the sect received their creed, and 
which were called in the Piedmontese patois, Vaux : that WaV- 
dense is a derivitive of Waldo, the name of a famous teacher among 
theVandois ; and that AJbigenseis derived from the ancient duchy 
of AUby, where large numbers of the Yaudois resided. See y en- 
ema, Sismondi. and others. 

* Bossuet. Hist, des Variations. 



36 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PKOVENCALS. 

France during the feudal period did not form a 
united monarchy. It was ruled by four indepen- 
dent kings ; so that the north of France was Wal- 
loon, a name afterwards confined to the French 
Flemings, and which was then given to the language 
spoken by Philip Augustus ; towards the west was 
an English France ; to the east a German France ; 
and in the south a Spanish or Aragonese France.* 

Spain also was somewhat similarly divided. 
The Moors, an exotic race, held most of the penin- 
sula ; Castile and Aragon were still separate and 
often inimical kingdoms.! Although Catalonia, 
Provence, and Languedoc had originally formed 
portions of the swollen and clumsy empire of Char- 
lemagne, yet when, no longer shaped by his plastic 
hand, the heterogeneous mass crumbled to pieces, 
these territories more or less completely allied 
themselves to the Aragonese throne ; so that it was 
with difficulty that even the powerful Count of Tou- 
louse, the hereditary lord of Provence and of For- 
calquier, surrounded as he was by a brilliant retinue 
of vassals and loyal states, could maintain his inde- 
pendence of the Spanish king.J 

* Sismondi, Histoire des Franc,ais, p. 28. 

f Prescott,. Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. I., passim. 

t Sismondi, Hist, des Fran^ais, p. 30. 



THE PKOVEXQALS. 



37 



These territories were then the garden of the 
world, bright and sunny as that Goshen of old.* 
They were the home of the exiled arts, of poetry, of 
painting, of music, of sculpture. The Provencal 
slopes bore up an industrious and intellectual race, 
who, more familiar with the Greek text than with 
the Greek phalanx, abjured war, garnered wealth in 
commerce, and found culture in study. The whole 
Pyrenean country offered the strongest contrast to 
the rest of Europe, which was wrapped in a darkness 
to be felt and seen, like that of Egypt. 

During the feudal ages, the whole intellectual 
horizon of northern Europe was singularly clouded. 
Poetry was unknown. Philosophy was proscribed, 
as a rebellion against religion. A barbarous jargon 
of provincial dialects had supplanted that sounding 
Latin which had preserved so many trophies of 
thought and taste. Commerce was unknown. A 
library of a hundred manuscript volumes was 
esteemed a magnificent endowment for the wealth- 
iest monastery. " Xot a priest south of the Thames," 
in king Alfred's phrase, " could translate Latin or 
Greek into his mother-tongue."! Xot a philoso- 
pher could be met with in Italy, according to Tiri- 
boschi. Europe was 

"rent asunder — 
The rich men despots, and the poor banditti ; 
Sloth in the mart, and schism within the temple ; 
Brawls festering to rebellion ; and weak laws 
Rotting away with rust in antique sheaths, "j: 

* Genesis, chaps. 45-^7, passim. 

f Halla-m, Hist, of the Middle Ages. 

t Bulwer Lytton's "Richelieu." 



38 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



But these dismal shadows grow fainter and 
fainter as we advance towards the south, until, in 
Languedoc, in Provence, in Catalonia, the twilight 
reddened and broadened into day. "Knowledge," 
said Lord Bacon, " is spread over the surface of a 
country in proportion to the facilities of education, 
to the free circulation of books, to the endowments 
and distinctions which literary attainments are 
found to produce, and above all, to the reward which 
they meet in the general respect and approbation 
of society."* The Provencals understood this law 
which the great Englishman so finely states. The 
corner-stone of their prosperity was laid in fostered 
letters. "From Ganges to the Icebergs" there 
could be found no more civilized society. 

"The arts 

Quit for their schools, the old Hesperides, 

The golden Italy ! while throughout the veins 

Of their whole empire flowed in strengthening tides 

Trade, the calm health of nations ; and from the ashes 

Of the old feudal and decrepit carcass, 

Civilization, on her luminous wings, 

Soared, phoenix-like, to heaven, 

This singular people had elaborated a language 
of remarkable beauty from the old French patois. 
It was distinguished from all the mediaeval dialects 
by its rich vocabulary, its picturesque phrases, and 
its flexibility 4 

The Provenfal tongue, studied by all the genius 
of the age, consecrated to the innumerable songs 

* Bacon's Advancement of Learning, 
f Bulwer Lytton's "Richelieu." 
% Sism., Hist, des Francois, p. 30. 



THE. PROVENCALS- 39 

of love and war, and to the stirring psalms of praise, 
appeared certain to become the most elegant of 
modern languages. 

The various courts of the smaller princes among 
whom these arcadian provinces were divided, as- 
pired to be models of taste, politeness, and purity. 
Like all commercial communities, the Provencals 
were more addicted to the arts of peace than to the 
stern science of war. Their cities were numerous 
and flourishing, their governments were framed on 
the ancient democratic models, and consuls, chosen 
by a popular vote, possessed the privilege of form- 
ing communes, as did those Italian republics, Ven- 
ice, Genoa, Florence, with which they traded.* 

To the south of the Provencals lay the dominions 
of the Spanish Moors, a remarkably refined and 
civilized people. They were already masters of a 
great portion of the east, of the country of the 
Magi and the Chaldeans, whence the first light of 
knowledge had shone upon the world ; of that fer- 
tile Egypt, the storehouse of human science ; of 
Asia Minor, the smiling land where poetry and the 
fine arts had their birth ; and of burning Africa, 
the country of impetuous eloquence and subtle in- 
tellect. Yet, pushed by a territorial greed which 
knows no parallel, the Moriscoes had recently, by 
a series of victories as brilliant as the Arabian con- 
quests of Syria and Egypt, added the Spanish pe- 
ninsula to their enormous eastern domain. They 
had even attempted to carry the fiery creed of their 

* Sism. Hist, des Fran^ais, p. 31. 



40 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



prophet from the Levant by way of the Danube to 
the Arctic ocean upon one side, and from the rock 
of Gibraltar to the English channel upon the other. 
Confined, however, within the limits of the Pyre- 
nees by the prowess of Charles Martel at Tours, the 
Moors gave up the Mahommedan principle of con- 
quest, and sought, by planting numerous schools 
and by patronizing learning, to conquer Europe by 
the Oriental philosophy, if they could not by Ma- 
homet's sword ; at the same time, by an admirable 
code of liberal laws, they strove to establish a peace- 
ful and permanent dominion in the Spanish penin- 
sula.* 

An active and profitable commercial intercourse 
with these polished infidels, and also with the Jews, 
had enlarged the capacity of the Provencals, and 
convinced them of the folly of the prevalent big- 
otry. Thus their land became the asylum of all 
dissenters from Borne. They respected the sacred 
rights of conscience at a time when the peoples to 
the north of the Loire not only rattled their secular 
chains, but when they lay lassoed at the feet of their 
priests, under the complete dominion of fanaticism. 

At this period, the Spaniards also, afterwards 
the most bigoted of modern races, the unhesitating 
butchers of the Inquisition, the volunteer executers 
of the wildest caprices of the papacy, emulated the 
toleration of their Provencal cousins, for they still 
remembered the time when they had themselves 
been compelled to sue for religious freedom under 
5 Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. I., passim. 



THE PROVENCALS. 



41 



the Moorish yoke. Indeed, a century before the 
Sicilian Vespers, the kings of Aragon were the de- 
clared protectors of all who were persecuted by the 
papal despotism. In imitation of the Castilian sov- 
ereigns, they were upon one occasion the mediators 
for the Vaudois at the court of Rome, and upon 
another, their mailed defenders in the field.* 

Even before the first mutter of the Vaudois dis- 
sent, the arrogant pretensions of the papal see had 
not imposed upon the enlightened Provencals, who 
despised the licentiousness of the priesthood, the 
credulity of the Romish believers, and the pompous 
ceremonies of the church.'!' 

The Troubadours, as those minstrel-poets were' 
called who were formed in the Moorish schools of 
Grenada, Cordova, and Seville, and- who went from 
castle to castle keeping aglow the embers of litera- 
ture by reciting their tales and chanting their mad- 
rigals, had very early launched their satirical verses 
at the abuses of the papacy. 

One of the most celebrated of the troubadours, 
Pierre Cardinal, who sang in the twelfth century, 
levelled this sirvmte% at the Roman vices : 

" Indulgences and pardons, God and the devil, 
the priests put them all in requisition. Upon these 
they bestow paradise by their pardons ; upon those, 
perdition by their excommunications. They inflict 
blows which cannot be parried. Xo one is so skil- 

5 Sisni., Literature of the South of Europe, Vol. L, p. 115. 
f Lampe, Eccles. Hist. 

X Sirvente is the proven§al French for the English word, satire. 



42 THE HUGUENOTS. 

ful in imposition, that they cannot impose upon 
him. There are no crimes for which the monks 
cannot give absolution. To live at ease, to buy the 
whitest bread, the best fish, the finest wine — this is 
their object the w T hole year round. God willing, I 
too would be of this same order, if I but thought 
that I could purchase my salvation at that price."* 

It will be seen from this recital how well the 
Catalonians and the Provencals were prepared by 
their simplicity of manners, by their tolerant prin- 
ciples, by their studious habits, by their active intel- 
ligence, by their commercial customs, and by their 
preexisting prejudice against the Roman usurpa- 
tions, for the reception of that mild and primitive 
Christianity which was about to flood their valleys 
with its light. 

Towards the middle of the fourth century, while 
the newly converted emperor, Constantine, was in- 
scribing the bastard legends of a paganized Chris- 
tianity upon those banners which had before been 
surmounted by the hungry eagles of the early em- 
pire, and cementing the foundations of the papacy, 
a few sincere Italian ecclesiastics of Milan, dissatis- 
fied with the increasing corruptions of the grandly 
simple faith which they so dearly loved, withdrew 
from Italy, and erected their Ebenezer in the beauti- 
ful, secluded, and labyrinthine valleys of Piedmont.t 

* Sism. , Literature of Southern Europe, Yol. I. , p. 103. 

f D. Yaissete, Hist, de Languedoc, Vol. III., p. 129. Brown- 
ing, Hist, of the Huguenots, p. 14. Huguenots in France and 
America, Intro, chap., p. 18. 



THE PRO VEN9 ALS. 



43 



Here, kneeling at their primitive altars, and shut 
out as well from the temptations of the world as 
from its honors, the simple invocation, " Our Fa- 
ther, who art in heaven," diffused light, liberty, and 
happiness around them, as it did around those first 
Christians, who were ever found, in mountain des- 
ert and in the open air, in dungeons and in fetters, 
yes, even in the awful Golgotha of the catacombs, 
with the same sublime prayer upon their lips. 
Though these inoffensive pilgrims were taunted by 
their enemies with the epithet, Manicheans, yet it 
has been conclusively shown, by unimpeachable 
historians, that their confession of faith, like that 
of their disciples, the Vaudois, was pure Protestant- 
ism, and would have obtained the approbation of 
Calvin or of Beza."* 

In 1124, three men, whose names ecclesiastical 
history loves to take upon its lips, Peter of Brays, 
Henry, and Arnold of Brescia, and who are doubly 
clear on account of the martyrdom which they suf- 
fered for their sacred cause, lighted their torches 
at the pure altar of the Pieclmontese, and carried 
the light of reformation from those obscure vales 
into the Provencal territories. t 

The first discoverv of a congregation 0 f this 
kind was at Orleans, in France, where several of 
the regular clergy, and numbers of the most re- 

* Browning, Hist, of the Huguenots, p. 14. Lampe, Hist. 
EccL, p. 216-249. 

f D. Yaissette, Hist, de Languedoc, Yol. II., p. 98. Hugue- 
nots in France and America, Intro, chap., p. 18. 



44 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



spectable citizens were open adherents of tlie Pied- 
montese tenets.* A council was immediately con- 
vened, which, after laboring in vain to reclaim the 
" Protestants," had recourse to the final argument 
of the Roman church, and burned them all at the 
stake. t 

Some time after this event, the conversion of 
Peter Waldo, one of the finest names in history, 
and the chief promoter of the Vaudois, as tho dis- 
senters were now called, X occurred. 

This mediaeval teacher was, in 1150, a wealthy 
citizen-merchant of Lyons.§ Amid the toils and 
bustle of mercantile life, he had found leisure to 
study the belles-lettres of the epoch ; he had also 
looked into the Scriptures. 

While engaged in consultation with several oth- 
er of the principal citizens, Waldo beheld one of 
the group stricken with sudden death. This occur- 
rence is said to have so impressed him with a sense 
of human frailty and of the divine wrath, that he 
renounced all worldly pursuits, and ever after de- 
voted his immense riches, as well as his rare elo- 
quence, to the promulgation of the gospelj 

He began with his own family; and then, as his 
fame spread, he admitted to his hearthstone and 
instruction a few others, until, by the year 1165, he 

* Sismondi, Hist, des Francais. Moskeim, Ins. of Eccl. Hist. 
Wadding-ton's Hist, of the Church. 

f Intro, to Eng. trans, of Sism. Hist, of the Albigenses, p. 23. 
t Chap. I., p. 32. 

§ D. Vaissette, Hist. Languedoc, Vol. H., p. 54. 
|| Venema, Eccl. Hist., t. VI., p. 115, 116. 



THE PROVENCALS. 45 

s 

had quitted his elegant home, and fully embarked 
upon an active apostolic career.* 

The Roman clergy, not only of Lyons, but of 
the whole neighborhood, set themselves to choke 
Waldo's expositions of primitive Christianity, and 
they even opposed and prohibited his domestic in- 
structions, but without avail; for the resolute re- 
former was led, by the obstacles which priestly 
malice threw in his path, to examine the more dili- 
gently into the opinions of the clergy, into the 
rites and customs of the papal regime; and then, 
since in his case as in that of the latter reformers 
examination meant emancipation from the thral- 
dom of Rome, to oppose their antichristian usur- 
pations the more decidedly. 

That Peter Waldo was not destitute of erudi- 
tion, Flacius Illyricus proves from evidence derived 
from the ancient writings ; t and perceiving, as 
Wiekliffe did in England not many years later, and 
as Luther did four centuries afterwards, that since 
the luminous tenets of his dissent from Koine were 
based upon the Scriptures, it was momentously 
important to unlock the treasure-house of biblical 
knowledge to the comprehension of the provengal 
people, and to prove his doctrine from the inspired 
pages, he translated the Latin Bible into the ver- 
nacular language of Gaul.J 

The irreconcilable difference between primitive 
Christianity, with its later manifestations, called 

* Veneraa, Eccl. Hist., t. VI., pp. 115, 116. 

| Ibid., p. 115. i Ibid. 



46 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Protestantism, and the Roman heresy — for Roine 
is indeed the crowned and ermined heresiarch of 
the ages — is in no one instance more grandly shown 
than in the treatment of the Bible by the respect- 
ive advocates of the two systems. The priests, like 
the juggling augurs of pagan Rome, and like their 
prototypes, the mutterers of the heathen legends of 
Egyptian Isis and Osiris, made a mystery of their 
religion, carefully concealed the sources of their 
divinity, padlocked that Bible which the apostle 
commanded mankind to search,* and then, having 
hidden the evidences of their faith, preached a bas- 
tard Christianity of forms, of images, and of human 
merit and omnipotence. 

Protestantism, on the contrary, has nothing to 
hide ; believes in the popularization of knowledge ; 
is democratic in its creed; knows no caste; asks 
nothing but, with the ancient cynic, that inimical 
systems "get out of its sunlight;" makes no secret 
of its tenets ; proclaims the worthlessness of human 
merit ; preaches the sole reliance of the human race, 
"By one man's disobedience lost,"f 

upon the gracious m.ercy of " Christ crucified " for 
a "recovered paradise;" and teaches justification 
by faith alone:'! and since it culls these precious 
truths from the sacred oracles, it marches down 
through the centuries with faith aglow in its heart, 
and an open Bible in its hands. This was why 

* St. John 5 : 39. 

f Milton's Paradise Regained, (Mitford's ed.,) p. 1. 
\ St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 3 :28 ; Heb. 10 :38. 



THE PEOYENCALS. 47 

Luther in Germany, Wickliffe in England, and, ear- 
liest of all, Waldo of Languedoc, translated the 
gospels into their respective mother-tongues. 

It is interesting to notice how singularly this 
venerable Vaudois creed agrees with the essential 
articles of that Protestantism which we of to-day 
bury in our heart of hearts. 

These were the chief articles of their faith, as 
recited by competent historians, both friendly and 
inimical : 

I. The Vaudois held the holy Scriptures to be 
the source of faith and religion, without regard to 
the authority of the fathers or to tradition; and 
though they principally used the New Testament, 
yet, as Usher proves from Eeinier and others, they 
regarded the Old also as canonical scripture. From 
their greater use of the New Testament, their adver- 
saries charged them however with despising the 
Old Testament.* 

II. They held the entire faith according to all 
the articles of the apostles' creed. t 

III. They rejected all the external rites of the 
dominant church, excepting baptism and the sac- 
rament of the Lord's supper, as, for instance, tem- 
ples, vestures, images, crosses, pilgrimages, the 
religious worship of the holy relics, and the rest of 
the Roman sacraments ; these they considered as 

° Venenia, quoted in the Appen. of Sisni. Hist, of Albig., Eng. 
trans. 

f Ibid. Perrin, b. I., chap. XII. Blair, Hist. Waldenses, vol. 
I., pp. 503, 505. 



48 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



inventions of Satan and of the flesh, full of super- 
stition.* 

IV. They rejected the papal doctrine of purga- 
tory, with masses, or prayers for the dead, acknow- 
ledging only two terminations of the earthly state — 
heaven and hell.f 

V. They admitted no indulgences nor confes- 
sions of sin, with any of their consequences, except- 
ing mutual confessions of the faithful for instruction 
and consolation. J 

VI. They held the sacraments of baptism and of 
the eucharist to be only symbols, denying the real 
presence of Christ in the bread and wine, as we find 
in the authoritative book of the sect concerning 
antichrist, and as Ebrard de Bethunia accuses them 
in his book Antihairesios.% 

VII. They held only three ecclesiastical orders : 
bishops, priests, and deacons; other systems they 
esteemed mere human figments ; that monasticism, 
then in great vogue, was a putrid carcass, and vows 
the invention of men ; and that the marriage of the 
clergy was lawful and necessary.il 

VIII. Finally, they denounced Rome as the 
whore of Babylon, denied obedience to the papal 

* Lampe, Hist. Eccles., pp. 246-249. f Venema. 

% Venema. This confession of faith is also borne out by a sin- 
gular theological poem which was written in the early part of the 
twelfth century, and called "The Noble Lesson." In this, not 
only great purity of faith is claimed for the Vaudois, but great 
antiquity, even an apostolic descent. Blair, vol. I., pp. 473, 484, 
gives the poem entire. 

§ Venema. || Ibid. 



THE PROVENCALS. 



domination, and vehemently repudiated tlie notions 
that the pope had any authority over other church- 
es, and that he had the power either of the civil or 
the ecclesiastical sword.* 

Such was the remarkably enlightened and pure 
Protestantism of these early teachers; such were 
the tenets proclaimed by Waldo and the Yaudois, 
in the middle of the twelfth century, upon the rich 
proven^al plains, and upon the listening and willing- 
slopes of the French and Spanish Pyrenees. 

Is it strange that when an abused and neglected 
populace, disgusted by the palpable avarice, des- 
potism, and mummery of the Pioman see, beheld 
a brotherhood of Christians enthusiastic in their 
religion, blameless in their lives,t humble in their 
demeanor, honest in their dealings, and disclaim- 
ing all tyranny over the consciences of men, prop- 
agating their tenets by the eloquence of their 
actions, many were won to embrace the salvation 
so sweetly taught, and that all generous souls were 
stirred at least to admire, if not to sympathize with 
a religion dear to God, but which Rome's unhal- 
lowed bulls denominated " heresy?" 

° Yeneraa. 

f "That their morals were good, we have the unwilling testi- 
mony of Gretzer, a Jesuit, who laments that the regular clergy 
should give such examples of pride, avarice, incontinence, anger, 
envy, and drunkenness, because it made the Vaudois place more 
faith in their heresiarchs, who gave them good examples of humil- 
ity, charity, chastity, sobriety, peace, brotherly love, and other 
virtues." Lampe, quoted in Browning's "History of the Hugue- 
nots," p. 14. 



3 



50 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE PREACHING OE THE CRUSADE. 

At length Rome began to move. Innocent III., 
who in 1198 ascended the pontifical throne in the 
vigor of his life, was the first who appeared to be 
fully impressed with the importance of crushing 
remorselessly that independent and inquiring spirit 
which was rapidly assuming the character of a uni- 
versal revolt from the Roman communion. 

His predecessors, engaged in a tedious and per- 
ilous struggle with the secular power, with the two 
Henrys, and with Frederick Barbarossa, thought 
their entire force not too great to defend them 
against the emperors ; and in those times they had 
themselves accepted the name of the paterins, or 
sufferers.* 

But Innocent III., one of the haughtiest and 
most flagitious of the pontiffs, whose genius as- 
pired to govern the universe, was as incapable 
of temporizing as he was of feeling pity. At the 
same time that he destroyed the political balance 
of Italy and Germany ; that he menaced by turns 
the kings of Spain, France, and England ; that he 
affected the tone of a master to the sovereigns of 
Bohemia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Norway, and Arme- 
nia ; in a word, that he directed or repressed at his 
* Sism. Hist, des Erancais, p. 36. 



PREACHING OF THE CRUSADE. 51 



will the crusaders who were occupied in overturn- 
ing the Greek empire, and in establishing the Latin 
rule and the Roman theology at Constantinople — 
Innocent III., as if he had no other occupation, 
searched for, attacked, and punished all opinions 
different frorn his own, all independence of mind, 
every exercise of the faculty of thinking in the 
august domain of religion. 

Though it was in the countries where the pro- 
vencal language was spoken, and especially in Lan- 
guedoc, that the Taudois reformation counted the 
majority of its disciples, yet it had also spread into 
other portions of Christendom, into Italy, into Flan- 
ders, into Germany, and into Spain.* 

Innocent III., both from character and policy, 
judged that the church ought to keep no faith with 
heretics. He thought that if it did not annihi- 
late them, if it did not, in his phrase, " exterminate 
the whole pestilential race," and strike Christen- 
dom with horror, their example would be speedily 
followed, and that the fermentation of mind would 
be productive of a consuming conflagration through- 
out the Roman world. 

Instead therefore of making converts, he charged 
his satellites to burn the chiefs of the Taudois, to 
disperse their flocks, to confiscate their property, 
and- to consign to perdition every soul who ventured 
to think otherwise than as he directed. t 

* Calmet Hist, de Lorraine, torn. II.. liv. XXII.,. ck. CXXIY., 
p. 199. Hist, de Langiiedoc, liv. XXI. , p. 130. 
f Sism., Hist, des Franeais, p. 31. 



52 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



At first the wily priest required those provinces 
where the Reformation had made but small prog- 
ress to set the example of persecution, thus feeling 
his way gradually towards a wider cruelty. In this 
way many leaders of the reformed church perished 
in the flames at Nevers, in 1198, and in the suc- 
ceeding years.* 

Innocent next requested Otho IV., his imperial 
puppet, who danced as his master pulled the strings, 
to grant him an edict for the destruction of the 
Italian Vaudois, who were also called Gazari.\ 

The Roman vulture then paused a moment and 
plumed his wings for a higher flight. Innocent de- 
termined that the lovely proven^al territory should 
be delivered over in the midst of its growing pros- 
perity to the fury of countless hordes of armed 
fanatics, its cities razed, its population butchered, 
its commerce destroyed, its arts thrown back into 
barbarism, and its dialect degraded from the rank 
of a poetic language to the condition of a vulgar 
jargon.} 

There were a number of lords and high barons 
in Southern France w r ho had themselves adopted 
the reformed opinions, and w T ho, instead of perse- 
cuting, protected the Vaudois. Others saw in them 
only enlightened and industrious vassals, whom 
they could not destroy without affecting prejudi- 

8 Hist, de Languedoc. 

t Edictum Ferrariae promulgation, 1210 ; Apud Muratorii An- 
tiq. Ital. , dissert. LX., pp. 89, 90. 

\ Sisrn., Hist, of Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 31, 



PEE ACHING OF THE CEUSADE. 



cially their own revenues and military strength. But 
when did Rome permit her cherished plans to be 
baffled by the intervention of human rights or 
weighty obstacles ? Innocent instantly armed a 
present interest and a brutal avarice against the 
calculating economy of the barons. He abandoned 
to them the confiscated property of all heretics, 
exhorting them to take possession of it, after ban- 
ishing or murdering those whom they had plun- 
dered. At the same time this flagitious pontiff 
anathematized all who refused to seize upon the 
estates thus confiscated by his usurped power, and 
placed their dominions under an interdict.* 

In 1198, Innocent had dispatched two legates, 
monks of Citeaux, brother Guy and brother Eegnier, 
into Languedoc, and the other heretical districts; 
but rather, as it should seem, for the purpose of ex- 
ploring and menacing than actually to commence 
the contest. t These legates were armed with full 
power, and it was enjoined upon the faithful to 
execute scrupulously their orders. Eegnier having 
fallen sick, Innocent joined with him Pierre de Cas- 
telnovo, whose zeal, more furious than that of any 
of his predecessors, is worthy of those sentiments 
which the very name of the Inquisition inspires.^ 

Presently afterwards a more numerous commis- 
sion, the advance of the martial array, invaded the 

* Sism., Hist, of Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 38. Inno- 
centii III. Epistolse, lib. I., epist. 81, 82, etc. 
f Waddington, Hist. Chli., p. 292. 
t Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, IV., XXL, p. 131. 



54 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



haunts of heresy, and brought the subtleties of the 
schools to the support of intimidation. This body 
received great additional efficiency from the acces- 
sion of a young Spanish monk named Dominic, the 
founder of the most bigoted and servile of ecclesias- 
tical orders, and who was afterwards canonized as 
a reward for his diabolical cruelty in "the ensuing 
Vaudois crusades. These itinerant spiritual mis- 
sionaries were generally known by the title of In- 
quisitors, a name not indeed honorable or innocent 
even in its origin, but not then associated with 
horror and infamy.* 

These inquisitors were at the outset empowered 
by the pope to discover, to convert, or to arraign 
before the ecclesiastical courts all guilty or sus- 
pected of heresy. But this was the limit of their 
commission. They did not at first constitute an 
independent, irresponsible tribunal, nor were they 
clothed with any judicial power. The process was 
still carried on according to the practice then pre- 
vailing, before the bishop of the diocese, and the 
secular arm w r as invited when necessary to enforce 
the sentence. t 

But this form of procedure was not found to be 
sufficiently rapid or arbitrary to satisfy the eager- 
ness of the pope and his missionaries. The work 
of extirpation was sometimes retarded by the com- 
punctions of a merciful prelate, sometimes by the 
reluctance of the civil authorities to execute a bar- 

* Waddington, Hist. Ckh., p. 292. 

f Limboeh. Hist, of the Inquisition, lib. I., Cap. XVI. 



PREACHING OF THE CRUSADE. 55 



barous or an unpopular sentence. In order to re- 
move these impediments to the free course of de- 
struction, there was no recourse but to institute in 
the infected provinces, with the direct cooperation 
of the ruling powers, a separate, independent tri- 
bunal for the trial of heresy.'" This was rendered 
more easy by the spread of the Franciscan and 
Dominican orders. As they were the faithful, un- 
questioning myrmidons of the Roman see, more 
devoted in their allegiance than either the secular 
or the regular clergy, they were invested with the 
separate jurisdiction. t 

Such was the origin in the gloomy and heated 
brain of a fanatic pope of that ghastly court of in- 
quisition, whose mere remembrance causes civiliza- 
tion to shudder. 

Innocent's Langueclocian inquisitors speedily 
offended all classes of society by their arrogance. 
Some bishops they accused of simony, others of 
negligence in the fulfilment of their duties. Under 
such pretences they deposed the archbishop of Nar- 
bonne, and the bishops of Toulouse and Yiviers.:|; 
Indeed they branded most of the regular clergy as 
heretics, and at the same time tormented the count 
of Toulouse and all the lords of the country by ac- 
cusations continually renewed. Thus they deprived 
themselves of the means of kindling so many fires 
as they could have desired. However, to gain a 

* Liinboch, Hist, of the Inquisition, 
f Waddington, Hist. Ckh., p. 358. 
t Sisrn,. Hist. Albigenses, p. 41. 



56 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



little popularity, they took the utmost pains to con- 
found the heretics with the routiers, or hireling 
soldiers, afterwards so celebrated throughout Eu- 
rope as the "Free Lances." 

The companies of these, generally composed in 
great measure of strangers, were still known in the 
south by the name of Catalans, as they were in 
the north by that of Br abandons.* The routiers 
were lawless banditti, who pillaged the churches 
and the priests for purposes of plunder, but haying 
no connection with the Vaudois, nor indeed taking 
any interest in theological paradoses and doctrinal 
disputations. This ruse of the legates did not meet 
with much success. The result was, that the Cata- 
lans also were offended at the denunciations levelled 
at them, and in their turn they avenged themselves 
by plundering the ecclesiastics with heartier zest.f 

At the commencement of the thirteenth century, 
Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, was the sovereign 
of Languedoc and Provence, though his rule seems 
to have been shared to some degree by his nephew 
Raymond Roger, viscount of Alby, Beziers, Car- 
cassonne, and Limoux, in Rasiz. Although Ray- 
mond of Toulouse, of whose history before the 
crusade little is known, had won some fame as a 
soldier, he was possessed of but little strength of 
intellect or vigor of purpose. He had succeeded to 
his father, Raymond V., in 1194, in the thirty-eighth 
year of his age, and had already, at the head of the 

* Sism. , Hist. Albigenses. 

f Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, LIV., LXXL, p. 138. 



PEE ACHING OF THE CKUSADE. 



57 



routiers, of whom he had made himself captain, 
made war upon many of his neighbors.* 

He had disputed with some of the barons of 
Baux, and with the lords of Languedoc and Pro- 
vence, his own vassals. This was apparently the 
reason why he had sought the alliance of Peter II. 
of Aragon, while his ancestors had constantly en- 
deavored to repress the encroaching ambition of 
that house. Raymond YI. married his fourth wife, 
Eleanor, sister of the Aragonese king, in the year 
1200 ; and five years later he promised his son, 
afterwards Raymond VII., to Sancha, the infant 
daughter of this same sovereign. t 

The Yiscount of Alby, Count Raymond's nephew, 
was made of sterner stuff. Now in his twenty-fifth 
year, generous, lofty, and enthusiastic, this prince 
was not of a temper to submit tamely to insult, nor 
would he stand quietly by and see his states merci- 
lessly harried. He had like his uncle succeeded to 
his father in 1194, and during his minority his do- 
minions had been governed by guardians inclined 
to the Vaudois doctrines,;]; 

In the spring of 1207 these two princes were 
upon the borders of the Rhorte, busied in quelling 
an insurrection of the barons of Baux, when the 
papal legate, Pierre de Castehiovo, ordered them to 
furl their banners and declare peace with the in- 
surgents. 

The legate had first visited the barons and ob- 

* Sism., Hist, of the Albigenses, pp. 41, 42. 

f Ibid., p. 43. J Ibid., p. 51. 

3* 



58 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tained from them a promise that, if Count Raymond 
would acquiesce in their pretensions, they would 
employ their united forces in the extermination of 
heresy — in Castelnovo's mind, " a consummation de- 
voutly to be wished." After agreeing with them 
upon the form of the treaty, the legate returned to 
the count of Toulouse, and required him to sign it.* 

But Raymond was nowise inclined to purchase, 
by the renunciation of his rights, the entrance into 
his states of a hostile army who were to pillage and 
kill those of his subjects whom the priests should 
indicate. He therefore refused his signature^ 
Pierre de Castelnovo, in his wrath, excommunicated 
him, laid his country under an interdict, and wrote 
a hot letter to the pope, to obtain the pontifical 
confirmation of his sentence. t 

Audacious as was the conduct of his legate, 
Innocent III. meant to uphold him. He sought for 
an opportunity to commence hostilities. He was 
desirous to adjourn the contest from the arena of 
argument, where his success was worse than dubi- 
ous, to the arbitrament of arms. Tired of the subtle- 
ties of the schools, he invoked the subtleties of war. 
He was persuaded that, after the progress which it 
had made in public opinion, the heresy could only 
be destroyed by the swords of his crusaders. Ac- 
cordingly he made no effort to medicine the wound, 
but, like a bungling surgeon, he applied an irritant. 



o Petri Vallis Cernai, Hist. Albigens., cap. EH., p. 559. Inno- 
centii III., lib. X., ep. LXIX. Hist, do Languedoc, LIV., XXI. 
ch. XXVH, p. 150. . t Ibid. 



PEEACHING OF THE CKUSADE. 59 



On the 29th of May, 1207, he wrote personally 
to Count Raymond a letter confirming the interdic- 
tion, and beginning thus : " If we could open your 
heart, we should find, and would point out to you, 
the detestable abominations that you have commit- 
ted ; but as it is harder than the rock, it is in vain 
to strike it with the words of salvation; we cannot 
penetrate it. Pestilential man, what pride has 
seized your heart, and what is your folly, to refuse 
peace with your neighbors, and to brave the divine 
laws by protecting the enemies of the faith ? If you 
do not fear eternal flames, ought you not to dread 
the temporal chastisements which you have merited 
by your so many crimes?"* 

So insulting a letter addressed to a sovereign 
prince must have been revolting to his pride. Nev- 
ertheless, the monk Pierre de Vaux Cernai informs 
us that "the wars which the barons of Baux, and 
others of the faithful, carried on against him 
through the industry of that man of God, Pierre de 
Castelnovo, together with the excommunication 
which he published in every place against the count, 
compelled him, at last, to accept the original terms 
of peace, and to engage himself by oath to their 
observance; but as often as he swore to observe 
them, so often he perjured himself."t 

The legate soon judged that the count did not 
proceed with adequate zeal. He sought Raymond, 

* Innocentii III., lib. X., ep. LXIX. Hist. Gen. de Lang., 
LIV., XXI., ch. XXXIII., p. 150. 

t Petri Vallis Cernai, Hist. Albig., LIV., III., p. 159. 



60 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



reproached liim to liis face with his tolerance, which 
he termed baseness, treated him as perjured, and 
again let fall upon him the bolt of excommunication. 
This violent scene occurred in January, 1208, at 
St. Gilles, where Count Raymond had granted De 
Castelnovo an interview.* 

The count of Toulouse was naturally very much 
provoked at the insolence of this upstart church- 
man, and he uttered some vague threats. The legate, 
disregarding his words, quitted the Provencal court 
without a reconciliation, and came to sleep, on the 
night of the 14th of January, 1208, in a little inn on 
the banks of the Rhone, which river he intended to 
cross on the morrow. 

Meantime one of the count's gentlemen chanced 
to meet him there, or perhaps had followed him. 
In the morning this gentleman entered into a dis- 
j3ute with Castelnovo respecting heresy and its pun- 
ishment. The legate had never spared the most 
insulting epithets to the advocates of toleration ; 
and at length the noble, already heated by the 
Roman's insolence to his sovereign, now feeling 
himself personally insulted, drew his poignard, and 
striking Castelnovo in the side, killed him.f 

This unhappy event furnished Innocent with the 
desired pretext for instant war. Although Ray- 
mond VI. had by no means so direct a part in Cas- 
telnovo's death as Henry II. of England had in 
Thomas a Becket's, his punishment was far more 

* Sismondi, History of the Albigenses, p. 46. 
f Ibid, i). 46. 



PEE ACHING OF THE CEUSADE. 61 



terrible ; for Innocent III. was more haughty and 
implacable than Alexander III. 

Neither knowing nor desiring any better preach- 
ers of his creed than war, murder, fire, and incest, 
the excited pontiff began to preach a crusade 
against the Vaudois. In the commencement of 
1208, Innocent addressed a bull to all the counts, 
barons, knights, and yeomen of Southern Gaul, 
in which he affirmed that it was Satan who had in- 
stigated his prime minister, Raymond of Toulouse, 
against the sacred person of his legate. He laid 
under an interdict all places which should afford a 
refuge to the slayer of De Castelnovo ; and demand- 
ed that the count of Toulouse should be publicly 
anathematized in all the churches. This furious 
bull closed with this remarkable declaration : 

"As, following the canonical sanctions of the 
holy fathers, we must not observe faith towards 
those who do not keep faith towards God, or iclio 
are separated from the communion of the faithful, we 
discharge, by apostolic authority, all those who be- 
lieve themselves bound towards this count by any 
oath either of alliance or of fidelity. We permit 
any man to pursue his person, to occupy and to 
retain his territories."* 

From this it should seem that the famous Jesuit 
phrase, " No faith is to be kept with heretics," though 
often attributed, with similar enormities, to Ignatius 
Loyola, is of far older origin. The fanatic Spaniard 

* Petri Yallis Cernai, Cap. YIIL, p. 564. Sisrn., Hist. Albig., 
pp. 46, 47. 



62 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



merely stole the atrocious sentiment from the decre- 
tals of Pope Innocent III., when he incorporated it 
in the constitution of his protean propaganda. 

Having now reduced these dissenting Christians 
of Southern France to the same level, in a religious 
estimation, with the Turk and the Saracen, Innocent 
next let loose an infuriated multitude of fanatics 
against them; and the word "crusade," which had 
hitherto signified only religious madness, was ex- 
tended to the more deliberate atrocity of sectarian 
persecution. # 



THE "SACRED WAR.' 



63 



CHAPTEE IV. 

PREPARATIONS FOE THE "SACKED WAR." 

Innocent III. had in November, 1207, exhorted 
Philip Augustus, the duke of Burgundy, the counts 
of Bar, of Nevers, of Dreux, and others of the old 
crusaders who had fleshed their swords on the 
plains of Palestine, and gathered barren laurels on 
the Syrian shore, to marshal their hosts against the 
Vaudois.* 

But early in 1203 the flames of his hatred were 
fanned into increased fury by the bloody catastro- 
phe of Castelnovo's death. The pontiff fulminated 
a series of epistles from the Vatican, which sum- 
moned all the faithful to the holocaust in Langue- 
doc.t 

Galono, cardinal deacon of San Maria deUo 
Portico, was dispatched into France by the crafty 
pontiff with these letters. He did not receive much 
consideration from Philip Augustus, who was now 
more occupied by his rivalry with the English king 
and with Otho of Germany than with obtaining the 
barren honor of heading another crusade in a sacred 
war.J But notwithstanding the king's polite indif- 
ference, the monks of Citeaux,§ who had received 
full powers from Borne, began to preach the cru- 

* Innocentii III. Epistolce, lib. X., ep. CXLIX. 

t Ibid. J Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 47. 

§ Chap. III., p. 51 



64 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



sade among the nobility and the yeomen of France 
with a perseverance and enthusiasm which had not 
been surpassed by Foulclques de Neuilly, or by the 
fanatical eloquence of Peter the Hermit.* 

Innocent III. offered to those who should take 
the cross against the Vaudois the utmost extent of 
indulgence which his predecessors had ever granted 
to those who fought for the deliverance of the Holy 
Land and the sepulchre of Christ. As soon as these 
new crusaders had assumed the sacred .sign of the 
cross — which, to distinguish themselves from those 
of the East, they wore on the breast, instead of upon 
the shoulder — they were instantly placed under the 
protection of the holy see, freed from the payment 
of the interest of their debts, and exempted from 
the jurisdiction of all the tribunals ; while the war 
which they were to wage at their doors, almost 
without danger or expense, was to expiate all the 
vices of a whole life — was warranted, by the impi- 
ous usurper of the apostolic name at Home, to 
efface the crimes of threescore years and ten from 
the heavenly records. t 

The belief in the efficacy of these indulgences, 
which in the sunlight of the nineteenth century we 
can scarcely comprehend, was then in its full flush. 
The barons of the feudal ages never doubted that, 
while fighting in the Holy Land, they had the full 
assurance of paradise. 

But those distant expeditions had been attended 
with so many disasters; so many hundreds of thou- 
* Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 48. f Ibid. 



THE "SACKED WAR." 



65 



sands liad perished on the scorching sands of Asia, 
succumbing either to the heat or to the Saracenic 
scimitars, or else had fallen by the way from hun- 
ger, misery, sickness, " and the thousand ills that 
flesh is heir to," that the boldest and most knightly 
hearts now wanted courage to essay the fight. 

It was then with transports of joy that the faith- 
ful received these indulgences. War was their pas- 
sion. The discipline of the holy wars was much 
less severe than that of the political, while the fruits 
of victory were much more alluring. In them they 
might without remorse, since no faith teas to be kept 
with heretics, and without restraint from their offi- 
cers, pillage and appropriate all the property, vio- 
late the women, and massacre the men of the inter- 
dicted territories. 

The crusaders of the East well knew that the 
distance was so great as to afford them but small 
chance of bringing home the booty gained by their 
swords. But now, instead of riches which were to 
be sought at a distance amid great perils, and which 
must be torn from the resolute grasp of barbarians 
whose language they could not understand, the 
French knights were exhorted, nay, commanded, 
by an authoritative voice from the shekinah at 
Rome, to reap the bloody harvest of a neighboring 
field, to appropriate the spoils of a house which 
they might hope to carry to their own, while cap- 
tives were abandoned to their desires who spoke 
the same language with themselves.* 
* Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 49. 



66 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Never therefore had the cross been assumed 
amid greater enthusiasm or with a more unani- 
mous consent. The first to engage in this atro- 
cious harry, which was baptized with the name of 
a sacred war, were Eudes III., duke of Burgundy, 
Simon de Montfort, count of Leicester — a bloody 
monster who glooms yet upon the historic horizon, 
pilloried to the scornful horror of the ages — and 
the counts of Nevers, of St. Paul, of Auxerre, of 
Gen6ve, and of For6z.* 

Meantime, though the crusaders were not ready 
to march in 1208, the din of their immense prepa- 
rations resounded through Europe, and filled Lan- 
guedoc with terror. Count Raymond, learning that 
Arnold, abbot of Citeaux, leader of the crusade, had 
been appointed by the pope his legate in those 
provinces from which he designed to eradicate her- 
esy, and that Arnold had convened a council of the 
chiefs of the sacred war at Aubenaz, in the Viva- 
rais, 

" To advise how war may bes-t upheld 
More by her two main nerves, iron and gold, 
In all her equipage, "f 

repaired thither in company with his nephew, to 
see if haply the storm might be averted. 

The legate received them with great haughti- 
ness; and though they both protested that they 

* Rigordus de Gestis Philippi Augusti, p. 62 et finis. Historia 
de las Grans Faicts d' Armas, p. 4. Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, liv. 
XXL, chap. XLL, p. 156. 

f Milton's "Sonnet on Sir Henry Vane the Younger." Mit- 
ford's ed., vol. II., p. 356. 



THE "SACKED WAR." 



67 



were personally strangers to the heresy, that they 
were innocent of the death of Pierre tie Castelnovo, 
and that they ought not to be judged and con- 
demned unheard, yet the insolent prelate upbraided 
them with stinging emphasis, declared that he could 
do nothing for them, and informing them that if 
they wished to obtain any mitigation of the meas- 
ures adopted against them, they must apply to the 
pope, he motioned them from the council-cham- 
ber* 

Then the differing characters of uncle and 
nephew were fully developed. Count Raymond, 
overwhelmed with terror, declared himself ready to 
submit to any terms, even to be himself the execu- 
ter of the unhallowed violence of the ecclesiastics 
upon his best subjects, wdiose sole offence was their 
heroic devotion to primitive Christianity. The cra- 
ven noble even stooped so low as to affirm his read- 
iness to make war upon his own family, if thereby 
he might obtain the pontifical absolution. t 

Not so the heroic nephew, noblest of a noble 
band of martyrs. Perceiving from the legate's lan- 
guage that nothing was to be expected from nego- 
tiation, and determined never peacefully to admit 
the crusaders into his states to ravage his clients, 
he boldly urged upon his uncle to place strong gar- 
risons in the larger towns, to prepare valiantly for 
the defence of their country, and to take the initia- 
tive by at once commencing the campaign before 

° Sismondi's History of the Albigenses, p. 51. 
t Ibid, pp. 51, 52. 



68 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the invading host could don its mail or draw its 
sword.* 

But the two relatives were unable to agree upon 
their policy, and they separated with reproaches 
and menaces. 

Raymond VI., after assembling his most faithful 
servants at Aries, engaged the archbishop of Auch, 
the abbot of Condom, the prior of the Hospitallers 
of St. Gilles, and Bernard, lord of Babasteens in 
Bigorre, to proceed to Bouen, in order to offer his 
complete submission to Innocent III., and to receive 
his indulgence. t 

The frightened count at the same time applied 
to his cousin, Philip Augustus king of France, and 
to Otho of German}^, for their protection. Philip 
at the outset received him with fair words, but 
afterwards refused him all assistance, on the pre- 
text of his solicitations to his rival Otho.J The 
German emperor did not deign even to notice his 
prayer. 

The ambassadors of Baymond to the pontiff 
were, on the contrary, received with apparent cor- 
diality. But it was required of them that their 
master should make common cause with the cru- 
saders ; that he should personally assist them in 
exterminating his subjects and in desolating his 
own territories ; and that he should surrender seven 

* Sismondi's History of the Albigenses, p. 52. 
t Petri Vallis Cern. Hist. Albig., ch. IX., p. 566. 
X Hist, de las Armas, pp. 4-6. Hist, de Lang., liv. XXI., ch. 
XLIL, p. 157. 



THE "SACKED WAR." 



69 



of his best castles in the heart of his dominions, as 
a pledge of his fidelity. Upon these conditions, 
Innocent bade Raymond hope that he might even- 
tually absolve him for the heinous crime of respect- 
ing the rights of conscience, and attempting to pro- 
tect his subjects from slaughter.* 

But notwithstanding Raymond's servile submis- 
sion and his own fair words, the implacable pontiff 
was far from haying forgiven him in the bottom of 
his heart. His assurances of favor were, vox et pre- 
terea nihil — went no lower than his throat. For 
while he was amusing the count's ambassadors 
with pacific declarations and paternal mandates, 
he wrote this real expose of his sentiments to the 
bishops of Eiez and Cansevans and to the abbot of 
Citeaus : " TTe counsel you, with the apostle Paul, 
to employ guile with regard to this same count; for 
in this case it ought to be called prudence. We 
attack separately those who are separated from our 
unity. Leave then the count of Toulouse for a 
time, employing towards him a wise dissimulation, 
that thus the other heretics may be more easily de- 
feated, and that afterwards we may crush him when 
he shall be left alone. "f 

Such was the equivocating morality, such the 
perfidious policy of a pontiff who claimed to sit as 
God, in the temple of God. 

* Historia de las Faicts d' Armas, p. 6. Cental, Hist. Albig., 
chap. XL, p. 567. 

. i Innocentii III. Epist., lib. XI., ep. 232. Hist. Gen. de Lan- 
guedoc. liv. XXL, p. 160. 



70 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



"We cannot but remark," says Sismondi, "that 
whenever ambitious and perfidious priests had any 
disgraceful orders to communicate, they never failed 
to pervert for this purpose some passage of the holy 
Scriptures. One would say that they had only 
studied the Bible to make sacrilegious applica- 
tions of it."- 

Meantime the gallant young viscount of Alby, 
undeceived by the cunning politics of the Roman 
count, able 

"To unfold 

The drift of hollow states, hard to be spelled," 

preserving his honor and his governmental oath 
untarnished, retired to his states, labored like a 
Hercules to put them in a defensive condition, and 
at length, having done all that enthusiasm and de- 
votion could do to protect his territories and to save 
the " lives, the fortunes, and the sacred honor" of 
a people in whose faith he did not share, the noble 
prince threw himself into the city of Beziers with a 
body of his armed retainers, and announced his pur- 
pose to hold it to the last for "Christ and liberty."! 

In the spring of 1209, the swarms of fanatics 
whom the harangues of the monks of Citeaux and 
the pope's indulgence letters had persuaded to de- 
vote themselves to the sacred war, began to move. J 

Different historians have variously estimated 

* Sism., Hist, of Albig., p. 53. 

f Historia de las Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, p. 7. Hist. Lan- 
guedoc, liv. XXL, ch. XLIL, p. 157. 

I Hist, de las Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, p. 10. 



THE "SACRED WAR." 



71 



the numbers of these crusaders. They have been 
computed to have been three, and even five hundred 
thousand strong.* But a very competent authority 
reckons but fifty thousand in this first campaign/!' 

This calculation, however, did not include the 
ignorant and infuriated multitude which, following 
each preacher, armed with scythes and clubs, and 
sweeping through the country with a more desolat- 
ing tread than the crusaders themselves, though in 
no condition to combat the chivalrous knights of 
Languedoc, undertook at least to murder the wom- 
en and children of the heretics. X 

Several places had been assigned for the ren- 
dezvous of these demoniac hosts. Arnold Amalric, 
abbot of Citeaux, legate of the pope, and chief di- 
rector of the crusade, collected the greater number 
of combatants, principally those who had taken 
arms in the kingdom of Aries, and who were vas- 
sals of Otho IV., at Lyons: the archbishop of Bor- 
deaux had assembled a second body in the Age- 
nois; these were the subjects of the king of Eng- 
land : the bishop of Buy commanded a third body 
in the Valai, who were the subjects of Bhilip Augus- 
tus.! 

When Count Raymond learned that these ter- 
rible bands were about to be let loose, the naked 
sword in one hand and the blazing torch in the 

* Hist, de las Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, p. 10. 

\ Petri Yallis Cernai, Hist. Albigens., cap. XXII., p. 584. 

I Sisrn., Hist. Albig., p. 5-1. 

§ Petri Vallis Cernai, Hist. Albigens., cap. XVI., p. 571. Hist 
Gen. de Langnedoc, liy. XXI., eh. LUX, pp. 167, 168. 



72 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



other, upon his beautiful states and those of his 
nephew, he represented to the pope that the legate 
Arnold, who conducted them, was his personal en- 
emy. "It would be unjust," said he, " to profit by 
my submission, to deliver me up to the mercy of a 
man who would listen only to his resentment against 
me." 

Then occurred another notable instance of the 
profound duplicity of the sovereign pontiff. In 
order, in appearance, to take from the count of Tou- 
louse this motive for complaint, Innocent III. named 
a new legate, his secretary Milon. But far from 
endeavoring to alleviate the woes of the Provencals 
by this means, or to restrain the hatred of the abbot 
of Citeaux, we are assured by the monkish historian 
Vaux Cernai, that the only aim was to deceive the 
count. He adds exultingly, "For the lord pope 
expressly said to this new legate, ' Let the abbot of 
Citeaux do every thing, and be only his organ; for 
in fact, the count of Toulouse has suspicions con- 
cerning him, while he does not suspect thee.' "* 

The nearer the crusaders approached, the more 
the count of Toulouse gave himself up to terror. 
On the one hand, he endeavored to gain the affec- 
tions of his subjects by granting new privileges to 
some, and pardoning the offences of others who had 
incurred his resentment ;t on the other hand, he 
consented to purchase his absolution by the most 

* Petri Vallis Cernai, cap. X., p. 566. 

f Kemissio Consulibus et Habilatoribus Nemonsi ; Preuves de 
Langnecloc, p. 211. 



THE "SACRED WAR. 



73 



humiliating concessions. He consigned to the pon- 
tifical notary seven of his finest castles. He per- 
mitted the consuls of his best cities to engage them- 
selves to abandon him if he should depart from the 
conditions imposed upon him. He submitted be- 
forehand to any sentence which the legate should 
be pleased to pronounce upon fifteen unproved ac- 
cusations laid against him by the inquisitors ; and to 
crown all, he suffered himself, on the 18th of June, 
1209, to be conducted into the church of St. Gilles 
with a cord about his neck ; and there he received 
the discipline before the altar upon his naked shoul- 
ders. He was then, upon promising to become the 
guide of the invaders, allowed to take the cross 
against his own subjects, and against that gallant 
nephew who stood tranquilly awaiting the assault.* 

* Acta inter Innocentii Epistolas, torn. II., p. 347, et seq. Cera. 
Hist, ties Albigeois, cap. XII. , p. 568. 



Huguenots. 



4 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE TRAGEDY. 

The jubilant host of the crusaders, in the sum- 
mer of 1209, wound slowly down into the smiling 
valley of the Rhone, through the friendly cities of 
Lyons, Valence, Mont elim art, and Avignon, after- 
wards so celebrated as the seat of one of the two 
pontiffs between whom the immaculate and seamless 
robe of Roman unity was divided. The entrapped 
"count of Toulouse repaired to Yalence to meet these 
ferocious forces ; from which city he conducted them 
to Montpellier, where they rested for several days."* 

The viscount of Alby, though hopeless of suc- 
cess, still determined to make one more effort to 
still the tempest conjured up against his innocent 
subjects by the cruel necromancy of the arch-jug- 
gler at Rome. To this end he went to Montpellier, 
and seeking the legate, told him, according to the 
ancient chronicle of Toulouse, that "he had done 
the church no wrong; that he but walked in the 
well-defined footsteps of his ancestors in granting i 
toleration in his states ; that as for himself he was a , 
servant of the church, wishing to live and die so."t I 

But the legate was imperturbable. Taking his | 
cue from the master-priest of the holy see, he told 

% Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, liv. 21, p. 175. 

f Historia de las Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, p. 7. 



BEGINNING OF THE TEAGEDY. 75 



young Bayraond Roger that what he had to do was 
to defend himself as best he might, for he should 
show him no mercy.* 

The viscount quitted the ancient walls of Mont- 
pellier sad but resolute. He had done his utmost — 
stepped to the verge of honor to avert the impend- 
ing avalanche by diplomacy. Now nothing re- 
mained but to draw the sword and fling away the 
scabbard. 

He immediately summoned to him all his vas- 
sals, friends, and allies ; laid before them the repre- 
sentations which he had made to the legate ; in- 
formed them of the manner in which he had been 
received ; and upon calling on them for advice, 
found the whole body of his retainers as resolutely 
determined to defend their hearth-stones as he was 
himself, t 

Nor were all those who took arms with him 
heretics. ;j; Let it be written for the honor of hu- 
man nature, that even in that sullen and ferocious 
age, there were not wanting gallant spirits ready 
and eager to die for the toleration of a creed in 
whose tenets they did not share. 

The knightly gentlemen of those days resided 
in castles which were more or less strongly fortified, 
while their vassals lived in little cots scattered over 
the estates at various distances from the fortilace. 
Languedoc was spotted with these chateaus : and 
now, upon the approach of the crusaders, the yeo- 

* Historia de las Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, p. 7. f Ibid,, p. 8. 
t Ibid. Sism., Hist. Albig., (Eng. trans.,) p. 57. 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



men rushed in vast numbers to the protection of 
these fortified walls; while the nobles, provisioning 
their larders for a siege, shut themselves up in their 
keeps with that nonchalance which is the offspring 
of long habit and danger often braved. 

Some castles, as Servian and Puy-la-rouque, 
were abandoned ere the Roman banditti reached 
them. Others, among which the old historians 
mention Caussadi and St. Antonia, where it was not 
supposed that any heretics lurked, ransomed them- 
selves by heavy contributions. Still others nobly 
met a sterner fate. Villeum was burned. Chasse- 
neuil, after a vigorous defence, capitulated. The 
garrison, who were routiers, or "free lances," ob- 
tained permission to retire with what they could J 
carry ; but the inhabitants, who were Vaudois, were I 
abandoned to the mercy of the legate. The ghastly 
carnival now began. The town was fired ; men, 
women, and children were precipitated into the \ 
hungry flames, amid the acclamations of their 
fiendish conquerors, and night only closed the fright- 
ful orgies.* 

From this sad opening scene even the pages of I 
the monkish historians of the foray are blotted with 
pitying tears. The crusaders, rendered still more j 
ferocious by this taste of blood, pressed fiercely on > 
towards the viscount's capital, Beziers, leaving, as : 
was charged upon that Attilla of old, no blade ol 
grass nor any living thing behind them."t 



**■ Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, liv. XXI., p. 168. Hist, de las 
, Faicts, etc., p. 18. f Ibid. 



BEGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY. 77 



In July, 1209,* they arrived under the walls of 
Beziers, and formally summoned it to surrender. 
Raymond Roger had chiefly calculated upon the 
defence of his two great cities, Beziers and Carcas- 
sonne. He had divided between them his most 
valiant knights, and the routiers who were attached 
to his fortune. He had at first thrown himself into 
Beziers; but after assuring himself that the city 
was provided with every thing in his power to be- 
stow, he quitted its walls for those of Carcassonne, 
a town built upon a rock, partly surrounded by a 
river, the Aude, and whose suburbs were environed 
by walls and ditches.f 

The citizens of Beziers felt themselves intimi- 
dated, when they knew that their young lord had 
left them for the stronger protection of Carcassonne, 
and their inquietude was redoubled when they be- 
held the three grand divisions of the Roman army, 
under the legate, the archbishop of Bourdeaux, and 
the bishop of Puy,J arrive and unite before their 
city. 

Just before the crusaders reached Beziers, they 
had been visited by the bishop of that city, Regi- 
nald de Montpej^roux, who delivered to the legate 
a list of those in the city who were accounted Yau- 
dois, and whom he desired to see thrown into the 
flames. He then returned to Beziers, assembled 
the inhabitants in the cathedral of St. Nicaise, and 
after representing to them with vivid eloquence the 

* Fleury, Hist Eccles., liv. LXXVL 

f Hist de las Faicts, etc., p. 19. % Chap. IV., p. 69. 



78 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



vast numbers of the crusaders, and the impossibility 
of resisting their onset, exhorted them not to draw 
down upon themselves, their wives, and their chil- 
dren the wrath of heaven and of the church by pro- 
tecting their Vaudois fellow-townsmen, but to yield 
them up to the avengers of the faith. 

" Tell the legate," replied the citizens, "that our 
city is good and strong, that our dear Lord God 
will not fail to succor us in great necessities, and 
that rather than commit the baseness demanded of 
us, we will eat our own children."* 

But though equal in courage and infinitely supe- 
rior in generosity and Christian purpose to their 
savage foes, the unhappy citizens of Beziers were 
not equal to them in military skill or in the disci- 
pline of trained arms. 

While the crusaders were occupied in tracing 
their camp, the citizens made a sortie, hoping thus 
to take their enemies by surprise. But instantly 
the united battalions of the besiegers precipitated 
themselves upon the disconcerted trainbands of 
the city, and forcing them to retire, pursued them 
so hotly that both parties entered the open gates 
together, and Beziers was captured before the cru- 
saders had even formed their plan of attack.f 

Then the bloody orgies of Chasseneuil were re- 
enacted on a broader theatre. Arnold Amalric, 

* Hist, de las Faicts, etc., p. 20. Petri Vail. Cern., Hist. Albig., 
cap. XV., p. 570. 

f Kaynaldi, Annal Eccles. , 1209, sec. XXII., p. 186. Hist, de 
Lang., liv. XXL, ch. LVIL, p. 169. De Thou, liv. VI 



BEGINNING OF THE TEAGEDY. 79 



abbot of Citeaux, upon learning that he had tri- 
umphed almost without a struggle, and determined 
not to be baulked of the expected feast of blood, 
upon being asked by some of his companions in 
arms how the Romanist citizens were to be distin- 
guished from the Vaudois, made that famous reply, 
worthy of Nero or Caligula : " Kill them all ; God 

WILL WELL KNOW HIS OWN !"* 

The fixed population of Beziers did not perhaps 
exceed fifteen thousand persons ; but all the inhab- 
itants of the country, of the open villages, of the 
plains, and of the castles which had not- been judged 
capable of safe defence, had taken refuge in Beziers, 
which was regarded as exceedingly strong. Even 
those who had remained to guard the strong char 
teaus, had, for the most part, sent their wives, their 
children, and their helpless ones to the city. 

At the moment when the crusaders became mas- 
ters of the gates, the whole multitude thronged to 
the churches. The great cathedral of Nicaise con- 
tained the larger number. The canons, clothed in 
their choral habits, surrounded the altar and sound- 
ed the bells, as if to express their prayers to their 
furious assailants. But these supplications of brass 
were as little heeded as were those of the human 
voice. Still the bells ceased not to sound until, of 
that immense multitude, not one remained alive. 
The massacre spread equally to the other churches ; 
seven thousand dead bodies were counted in that 

* Csesar Heister bacliiensis, lib. V., cap. XXL Sisni., Liter, of 
South of Europe, vol. I., p. 116, note. Sism., Hist. Albig., p. 60. 



80 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



of Magdalene alone. Thus even the benefit of 
sanctuary, respected at that period for the vilest 
malefactors, was not awarded to the Vaudois.* 

An old Provencal historian has, by the sim- 
plicity of his language, augmented the terrors of 
this scene : " They entered the city of Beziers, 
where they murdered more people than was ever 
before known in the world ; for they spared neither 
young nor old, nor infants at the breast. They 
killed and murdered them all, which being seen by 
the said people of the city, they that were able did 
retreat into the great church of St. Nazarius, both 
men and women. The chaplains thereof, when 
they had so retreated, caused the bells to be rung 
until everybody was dead. But neither the sound 
of the bells, nor the chaplains in their priestly hab- 
its, nor the clerks, could hinder them from being 
put to the sword. One only escaped, for all the 
rest were slain and died. Nothing so pitiable was 
ever heard of or done before."t 

When the crusaders had completely pillaged it, 
and massacred every living creature, the city was 
fired in every part at once, and reduced to a vast 
funeral pile.J 

Historians differ as to the number of victims 
sacrificed on this awful occasion to the greed of the 
insatiable demon of persecution. The abbot of 

c Sism., Hist. Albigen., pp. 60, 61. 

f Preuves de l'Histoire de Languedoc, torn. III. , p. 2 ; also 
quoted in Sism., Lit. of the South of Europe, at p. 117, yoL I 
% Ibid. 



BEGINNING OF THE TKAGEDY. 81 



Citeaux, feeling some shame for the butchery which 
he had ordered, in the account which he transmit- 
ted to Innocent III., reduces the number to fifteen 
thousand. Other and more reliable contemporary 
chroniclers reckon it at from forty to sixty thou- 
sand.* 

Having " supped full of horrors" at Beziers, yet 
without being satiated, the crusaders pressed on 
through a deserted country — for the inhabitants 
preferred taking refuge in caves, woods, mountains, 
to waiting for such enemies within the enclosure of 
walls which might serve as a prison— towards Car- 
cassonne. They reached this Vaudois citadel on 
the 1st of August, 1209, and pitching their tents^ 
invested it in due form.t 

Although the generous heart of Raymond Roger 
had been terribly wrung by the massacre of his 
loyal subjects of Beziers, and by the destruction of 
his capital, he u bated no jot of heart or hope 
while the brave inhabitants of Carcassonne renewed 
their oath of allegiance to him, and of fidelit}^ to 
each other4 

Carcassonne was accounted almost impregnable. 
Built upon one side of the river Aude, in whose 
waters it bathed upon the right, it had been strong- 
ly fortified by the skill of the young viscount upon 

* Bernard Ilier of L images, a contemporary, makes the num- 
ber slain 38,000; Abberic, a monk, 60,000. See Sism., Hist. Al- 
big., p. 61, note. 

t ^t. Albig., p. 62. 

t Sism., Liter, of South. Europe, vol. I., p. 117. 
4* 



82 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the more exposed angles. It was besides defended 
by a numerous and devoted garrison. 

Tlie attack commenced upon one of the suburbs 
without the city walls. Here the combat raged 
fiercely for two hours, during which time Eaymond 
Roger on one side, and Simon de Montfort upon 
the other, gave evidence of extraordinary personal 
prowess. Eventually the suburb was taken by 
mere stress of numbers. The besieged retreated 
into the second suburb, which the assailants pressed 
on to attack. For eight days the viscount defended 
this redoubt with success, but on the ninth day he 
evacuated it, and, having fired it, retired slowly and 
sullenly into the city, clanging the ponderous gates 
in the faces of the outwitted foe.* 

Meantime Eaymond Roger had found means to 
communicate with his uncle, Don Pedro II. king of 
Aragon. The Aragonese sovereign had witnessed 
the oppression and outrage inflicted upon his rela- 
tive with chagrin. He therefore quitted his king- 
dom, and hastening to the camp of the crusaders 
endeavored to negotiate a peace.f 

Having obtained permission of the legate to 
visit his nephew, the king entered Carcassonne to 
confer with the viscount. " My dear uncle," said 
the frank young soldier, " if you wish to arrange for 
me any honorable adjustment, I freely leave with 
you its form and manner, and I will* ratify it with- 
out hesitation ; for I see clearly that we cannot long 
maintain ourselves here, owing to the multitude of 

* Hist, de las Faicts de Tolosa, p. 12 j Ibid. 



BEGINNING OF THE TRAGEDY. 83 



countrymen, women, and children who have taken 
refuge with us. We cannot reckon them, but they 
die, alas, in great numbers every day. But were 
there only myself and my soldiers here, I swear to 
you that I would rather die of that ghastly famine 
which now stares us in the face than surrender to 
this same cruel legate."* 

The king of Aragon very injudiciously related 
this discourse to the wily legate, who, thus familiar 
with the precise condition of the viscount, was 
thereby enabled to offer, with some assurance of 
success, propositions much less generous than he 
would otherwise have ventured to make ; for be it 
remembered, it was no part of this atrocious monk's 
purpose to accommodate affairs. He wished to 
glut the vengeance of a cruel faith. Still he did 
not dare absolutely to repel such a mediator as the 
king of Aragon. But knowing well the high and 
chivalric character of the viscount, he achieved his 
object by proposing terms which it would be im- 
possible for a gallant and knightly spirit to accept. 

" Tell your nephew, sire,' 5 said the abbot of 
Citeaux, " that he himself, with any twelve others 
whom he may choose, may freely quit the city. 
But the remainder of the citizens and soldiers must 
be abandoned to our good pleasure." The king 
carried the message. " Now, out upon the priestly 
catiff," was the noble reply : " rather than submit to 

* Hist, de las Faicts, p. 13. Hist, de Langnedoc. liv. XXI., ch. 
LXXIX., p. 171. Petri Vallis Ceriiai, Hist, Albig., cap. XYL, 
P. 571. 



84 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



these disgraceful terms, I would suffer myself to be 
flayed alive. No, he shall not haye the meanest of 
my people at his mercy ; for it is on my account 
that they are now in danger."* 

The chivalric king approved the generous pur- 
pose of his nephew, and turning towards the assem- 
bled citizens and knights of Carcassonne, he inform- 
ed them of the legate's conditions, and added, " You 
now know what you have to expect ; mind and de- 
fend yourselves well, for he who acts the part of a 
brave man always finds good mercy at last."t 

Don Pedro of Aragon with his retinue had 
scarcely quitted the city ere the impatient crusad- 
ers hurled themselves upon its walls, but in vain ; 
the gallant viscount fought as nobly as he talked. 
Streams of boiling water, blazing oil, immense 
stones, projectiles of every kind then known to the 
cruel skill of war — all were put in requisition ; and 
at length, maimed, bleeding, and balked, the crusad- 
ers fell back w T ithin the entrenchments of their 
camp. 

The greater part of the crusaders had taken the 
cross but for forty days. The time now approached 
for their service to end. General and sullen dis- 
content reigned in the pontifical camp. The sol- 
diers had been promised the intervention of a 
miracle in their favor. Yet after two prolonged and 
bloody assaults, they still stood without the walls of 
Carcassonne, while 

"Many a corpse lay ghastly pale beneath the setting sun." 
* Hist, de las Faicts, etc., p. 15. f Ibid. 



BEGINNING OF THE TEAGEDY. 85 



The legate remarking these symptoms of de- 
moralization, and true to the perfidious maxims of 
the church whose livery he wore, now determined to 
have recourse to stratagem, if haply he might ac- 
complish by his arts what had been denied his 
sword. 

Accordingly he renewed the negotiations. The 
viscount, ignorant of what was passing in the camp 
of the crusaders, and profoundly anxious for an 
honorable accommodation, received the legate's 
messenger with the utmost cordiality. Fully con- 
scious of the rectitude of his own intentions and 
proceedings, he could not but believe that, when 
the injustice of which his country had been the 
victim should be known, it would excite the com- 
miseration of the great barons and ecclesiastics 
arrayed against him, and stay the devastation. 
Filled with this Quixotic idea, and as incapable of 
suspecting deliberate treachery in others as he was 
of himself performing a perfidious deed, young 
Piaymond offered to accompany the envoy to the 
camp of the crusaders, for the purpose of having a 
personal interview with the chiefs of the sacred 
war, provided his personal safety and return should 
be solemnly guaranteed.* 

The envoy flew to acquaint the legate with this 
offer. Arnold Amalric rubbed his hands gleefully 
when he heard this recital, and though he deliber- 
ately perjured himself by doing so, for he had in- 
stantly decided upon the confiding viscount's arrest, 
* Historia de las Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, p. 18. 



85 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



lie yet sent the desired safe-conduct, to wliicli he 
attached the seal of Rome. 

The viscount soon made his appearance, accom- 
panied by three hundred of his choicest chivalry. 
Repairing to the legate's tent, where the chiefs of 
the crusade were assembled, he nobly and power- 
fully vindicated his conduct and the policy of his 
ancestors, and again affirmed, that though the fast 
friend of religious toleration, he was still a true ser- 
vant of the Roman church.* 

Then Rome gave another proof of the pitiless, 
unhallowed, and abandoned wickedness of her pol- 
itics. Not only the legate, but the great lords who 
accompanied him, were penetrated with the diabol- 
ical maxim of Innocent III. : " To keep faitli tvith 
heretics is an offence against the faith" Accordingly 
watching for a propitious moment, the crusaders 
threw themselves upon the surprised and insignifi- 
cant retinue of the Proven£al prince, all of whom, 
after a brief struggle, were disarmed, and together 
with their young lord consigned to the care of Simon 
de Montfort.t 

* Sism., Hist. Albig., Eng. transl., p. 65. 

t Petri Vail. Cern., Hist. Albigens., cap. XXI., p. 571. Hist, de 
Lang., liv. XXI., ch. LVHL, p. 160. Sism., Hist. Albig., pp. 
65, 66. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 



87 



CHAPTEE YI. 

THE REIGN OF TEEEOE. 

The crusaders thought that the flagitious per- 
fidy exhibited by their chiefs towards the beloved 
prince of Alby would strike terror, like a dagger, 
into the hearts of the inhabitants of Carcassonne. It 
did indeed chill them with horror, but it also with- 
drew the entire population from the clutches of these 
bloodhounds of the Roman church.* 

There was an immense cavern, dark, freezing, 
and awful, which yawned in the bowels of the earth, 
and stretched away from the river-gate of Carcas- 
sonne three leagues, to the towers of.Cabardes. To 
the protection of this gloomy sanctuary — for to their 
despair it was indeed a temple — the citizens rushed ; 
and on, on, through the ooze of the dreadful cavern, 
which in happier times the boldest had shrunk from 
approaching, esteeming it haunted by hobgoblins, 
they tramped, willing to face the spirits of the yawn- 
ing depth, if only they might escape the fiends who 
raged before their city walls. 

Meantime, when the curtain of the night was 
lifted, and the light of day began to dazzle in the 
grey eastern horizon, the crusaders were astonished 
at not beholding the accustomed Yaudois sentries 

* Historia de las Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, p. 21. Sism., Hist. 
Albig., p. 66. 



83 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



pacing the city walls. " Conscience does make cow- 
ards of us all," and remembering their own treach- 
ery of the day before, they feared that some stupen- 
dous mischief underlay the silence and desertion ; 
for those of them who had grown greyest in the 
wars had never before seen a large population melt 
into nothing in a night. 

At length however they entered Carcassonne, 
and the legate took possession of the spoil in the 
name of the church, excommunicating those of the 
crusaders who should have appropriated any part 
of it. But it long remained a mystery what had 
become of the teeming population which had van- 
ished under cover of that August night.* 

The abbot of Citeaux thought himself obliged to 
dissemble the villany to which he had had recourse, 
and which had succeeded so badly. Accordingly on 
the 15th of August, 1209, the day of the occupation 
of the city, he issued a proclamation, in which he 
unblushingly announced that he had signed a capit- 
ulation by which he had permitted all the citizens to 
quit Carcassonne with their lives only.f And then, 
deeming it essential to the honor of the holy church 
that all the heretics should not escape him, he 
caused a number of Vaudois whom he had picked 
up upon his march, together with the knights who 
had accompanied the viscount of Alby and Beziers 
to his camp, to be collected in a group four hun- 
dred and fifty large. Then this wanton butcher 

* Sismondi, Hist. Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 66. 
f Ibid. 



THE EEIGN OF TEKEOK. 



89 



selected out of that number fifty to be hanged, 
and the remaining four hundred were burned alive, 
to propitiate the malignant fury of his vengeful 
church.* 

All was now esteemed to have been accom- 
plished. The count of Toulouse had submitted to 
the most degrading conditions ever before offered 
to or accepted by a sovereign prince. The beauti- 
ful and virgin Provencal plains had been rudely vio- 
lated and soaked in blood. The gallant viscount 
of Alby and Beziers was a hopeless prisoner in the 
iron grasp of Montfort. The other Provengal no- 
bles had published in their jurisdictions laws against 
the Vaudois even more severe, if that were possi- 
ble, than Eome demanded. 

The French lords who, to gain the indulgence 
of the church, had marched to the crusade, thought 
that they had done enough to effect the salvation 
of their souls ; and weary of blood and ashamed of 
the violation of their plighted faith, they chafed to 
return to their castles. 

All seemed satisfied, save the monks — save Dom- 
inic Guzman, and Francis d' Assise his companion 
in infamy, the founder of the despicable order of 
St. Francis, and at their head the abbot of Citeaux. 
The Vaudois were frozen with terror, but these 
fanatics thirsted for their blood. The heretics, 
leaving their homes to the pillage of the avaricious 
and to the incendiary torch of the marauder, had 

Men in the mountains, and were outwardly silent ; 

* Sismondi, Hist. Crusades against the Aibigenses, p. 66. 



93 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



but these bigots knew that inwardly they prayed to 
that dear Jesus who for them had been nailed upon 
the tree, that the torch of primitive Christianity 
Still smoked, if it did not blaze, and this thought 
would not let them rest. 

The Vaudois were not exterminated. Their opin- 
ions would still secretly circulate. Resentment for 
outrages already suffered would alienate them yet 
more irreconcilably from the Roman communion. 
Their suffering would attach them still more devot- 
edly to the tenets of their dissent, and the reforma- 
tion would break out afresh. " To turn back the 
march of civilization, to obliterate the traces of a 
mighty progress of the human mind, to efface the 
foot-prints of the primitive and pure apostolic faith, 
it was not sufficient to sacrifice, as an example, 
hecatombs of victims ; the nation must be destroyed. 
All who had participated in this grand develop- 
ment of evangelical knowledge, of Christian thought, 
I of luminous science, must perish. None must be 
spared, save the most boorish rustics, whose intelli- 
gence was scarcely superior to the beasts whose 
labor they shared."* 

Such was the flagitious rationale of the Roman 
see — such the avowed policy of the abbot of Citeaux, 
and his twin jackals, Dominic and Francis d' Assise. 

At the conclusion of the first crusade, just before 
the great lords separated, the legate assembled a 
council, and desired them to award the states of 
Raymond Roger, forfeit to the church, to some 
* Sism., Hist, of the Albig., Eng. transl., p. 68. 



THE EEIGN OF TEEEOR. 



91 



lord who, would engage to extirpate the remnant of 
the Vaudois. The conquered territories were first 
offered to Eudes III., duke of Burgundy ; but he 
refused them, saying that "he had plenty of do- 
mains and lordships without taking that, to disin- 
herit this unhappy viscount; and that it appeared 
to him that they had done him evil enough, without 
despoiling him of his ancestral states."* 

This refusal, couched in such words, touched 
the honor of all the barons ; and the counts of Ne- 
vers and of St. Paul, to each of whom the proffer 
was made, held the same language. Then the sov- 
ereignties were offered to Simon de Montfort, the 
most greedy and ferocious of the vengeful band. 
This infamous noble, then lord of but a single cas- 
tle, Montfort Amaury, situated some ten leagues 
from Paris, though he was of an illustrious house, 
said to have been descended from king Robert by a 
natural son,t after some feigned reluctance, finally 
accepted the bloody and usurped gift, thus by his 
ambition raising himself to the rank of the grand 
feudatories. 

De Montfort had held the rightful sovereign of 
the states of which he had just taken possession a 
close prisoner in his donjon-keep ever since his 
capture. It now became necessary to sweep this 

* Sism., Hist, of the Albig., Eng. transl., p. 68. 

f Prsefatio Camaratii Tricassini in Petrum Vallis Cernai. This 
historian of the crusade, so often quoted in these pages, was a 
Bernardin monk ; his convent was situated near Montfort Amaury ; 
and he was a vassal of Simon de Montfort, whom he followed to 
the war. 



92 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



obstacle completely from his path ; for . even in 
chains the young viscount haunted him, presaging 
evil to himself and to his house. Raymond Roger 
was a rare character. His neighbors loved him. 
His people idolized him, and prayed for him daily. 
The Vaudois especially enshrined him in their heart 
of hearts. Possibly his powerful and kingly rela- 
tive of Aragon would be disposed to throw his royal 
ermine over his hapless nephew's defenceless form. 
Clearly it was Montfort's policy to get rid of his 
prisoner, too strong even in irons. With this fero- 
cious and sullen fanatic, to decide was to act. Ac- 
cordingly Montfort gave the necessary order for his 
death, at the same time spreading a report that the 
viscount had died of dysentery. But the fraud was 
too transparent. The public voice and conscience 
openly accused De Montfort of having poisoned his 
princely captive ; and even Innocent III. acknow- 
ledged that the viscount perished by violence.* 

Thus, in the flower of his age, ended the mortal 
career of Raymond Roger, viscount Alby and Be- 
ziers. chivalric as any Paladin of them all ; a knight, 
like Bayard, sans pear et sans reproche, worthy to 
be a martyr in the grandest of all causes ; a heroic 
soldier in the " good fight " which Bunyan has de- 
scribed ; another victim added to the swollen cata- 
logue of Roman intolerance and depravity. History 
takes his name from the Roman rubric of heretical 
malefactors, and placing it among her jewels, writes 

* Hist, de las Faicts, etc., p. 20. Innocentii III. Epist., lib. 
XV., ep. 212. 



THE EEIGN OF TERKOK. 



93 



proudly. Raymond Roger, the defender of the 
Vaudois. 

Upon the conclusion of the campaign of 1209, 
Count Raymond of Toulouse, having submitted in 
every thing to the pontifical requisition, thought 
himself sure of reconciliation with the church ; but 
he was surrounded by men whose interest it was to 
prolong his punishment, if not to perpetuate it. 
The bishop of Toulouse, a recreant troubadour, 
Foulqu6t de Marseille, who had in other days gain- 
ed some fame by his amatory verses, but who, dis- 
gusted with the world, had retired to a cloister, 
where he had fostered the passions of fanaticism 
and persecution,* was Count Raymond's open foe. 
The two jackal inquisitors, Dominic and Francis, 
hated him because he had once tolerated the Vau- 
dois. The abbot of Citeaux was his declared ene- 
my ; while Simon de Montfort, looking from his 
usurped viscountal palace at Carcassonne across 
upon Raymond's contiguous territories, thought 
how goodly his heritage would be if only the count- 
ship of Toulouse could be added to it. He was 
urged on therefore by the double motive of relig- 
ious fanaticism and political ambition. These wor- 
thies, working tirelessly and secretly, defeated every 
measure which Raymond of Toulouse could elabo- 
rate for the procuration of his pardon, In the early 
part of 1210, the count had visited Rome, and in an 
interview with Innocent, had learned that the con- 
sideration of his case had been confided to an 

* Sism., Literature of the South of Europe, vol. I., p. 115. 



94 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ecclesiastical council about to be convened at St. 
Gilles* 

Raymond hastened home to meet the council. 
Meantime the abbot of Citeaux had harangued its 
members, and so prejudiced them against the count, 
that, without granting him an opportunity to clear 
himself of the charges laid against him, the council 
again fulminated an excommunication against him 
in the name of the church. f 

Simon de Montfort, with a powerful army — for 
though most of the great barons had retired, many, 
influenced either by that fanaticism which led them 
to take the cross, by the hope of securing a perma- 
nent establishment in a conquered country, ox by 
the promise of plunder and adventure, still adhered 
to the banner of the crusade which the new viscount 
carried — had now the desired pretext for entering 
and ravaging Count Raymond's dominions. At the 
same time crowds of monks headed by Guy and Ar- 
nold Amalric of Citeaux, issued from their convents, 
and recommenced preaching the crusade. Gather- 
ing about them troops of ferocious and superstitious 
warriors, they proclaimed that there was no vice so 
deeply rooted, no crime so black, that a gala cam- 
paign of forty days in the south of France would 
not obliterate. Paradise with all its glories was 
opened to them, without the necessity of the slight- - 
est reformation of their conduct 4 

* Innocentii III. Epistolae, lib. XII., pp. 159, 169. 
t Petri Vail. Cern., cap. XXXIX., p. 586, Hist. Albig. 
t Sism., Hist, of the Albig., p. 83. 



THE EEIGN OF TEREOE. 



95 



Accustomed to confide their consciences to their 
priests, to listen to the voice of Roine as to the 
thunders of the dread God of Sinai, never to submit 
what appertained to the faith to the arbitrament of 
reason, these besotted crowds really regarded those 
beloved children of God's right hand, the Yaudois, 
as a nest of heretics who bred contagion. 

So the roads were once more blocked with the 
advancing enthusiasts. Alice of Montmorency, De 
Montfort's wife, assumed the control of the forces 
raised by the exhortations of the monks.* 

At the commencement of Lent, 1210, her husband 
came to meet her at Pezenas. He no sooner found 
himself at the head of a large and well-appointed 
army, than he gave full sway to his evil passions. 

A few lords still ventured to defend either the 
independence of their jurisdiction, or that of their 
conscience. De Montfort now essayed to crush 
this opposition by new judicial massacres. His 
fresh horde of fanatics swept through the country 
with desolating fury. The feudal state of indepen- 
dence had multiplied the isolated fortresses which 
served at once for residences and strong-holds. 
The smallest provinces were covered with citadels. 
These castles then received De Montfort's first 
attention. Many of them were abandoned on his 
approach. Others which ventured to resist, were 
razed, while their heroic defenders were either hang- 
ed upon gibbets, or roasted alive for the honor of 
the mother church. The castle of Brom being cap- 

* Hist, de Languedoc, liv. XXL, p. 197. Fleury, Hist. Eccies. 



96 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tured by the crusaders on the third day of the siege, 
De Montfort selected a hundred of its wretched in- 
habitants, Yaudois who had been denounced by the 
priestly spies who sped before the men-at-arms to 
procure lists of heretics, and having torn out their 
eyes and cut off their noses, sent them in this state, 
under the guidance of a one-eyed man, to the neigh- 
boring Vaudois castle of Cabaret, to announce to 
that garrison the fate which awaited them.* 

"When De Montfort found the citadels deserted, 
not being able to reach human beings, he wreaked 
his vengeance upon the twining vines, the olive- 
trees, and the blooming gardens which lent rare 
beauty to the landscape, and made Provence the 
queen of nations, the idyl of territories. t 

The pen of history falters when it follows this 
rude butcher upon his devastating marauds, nor is 
it necessary to detail with absolute minuteness the 
harrowing scenes of this frightful war, which yet 
possesses strange interest. 

The siege of the castle of Minerva was one of 
the most remarkable of the war, and is detailed at 
length by the ancient chroniclers. This citadel was 
built upon a steep and almost inaccessible rock, 
surrounded, by precipices, and was regarded as one 
of the most impregnable strong-holds in the Gauls. 
It belonged to Guiraud de Minerva, a Vaudois 
nobleman, and one of the best knights in Southern 

* Histoire de Languedoc, liv. XXI., ch. LXXXIX., p. 191. 
t Petri Val. Oer., Hist. Albig., cap. XXXIV. et V., pp. 581. 
582. 



THE REIGN OF TEEEOE. 



97 



France. The crusaders brought against it their 
finest men-at-arms, De Montfort and the abbot of 
Citeaux being present in person.* 

The Yaudois defended themselves for seven 
weeks with a valor which extorted the admiration 
even of De 'Montfort. But when, on account of the 
heat of- summer — it was under the fierce sun of 
July — the water in their wells and cisterns failed, 
they demanded a capitulation. Terms were finally 
agreed upon ; but when they were read in the coun- 
cil of war, one article, which provided that those 
Yaudois w r ho were converted to the Roman faith 
might quit the castle alive, was violently opposed. 
"Robert de Mauvoisin," says the monk Yaux Cernai, 
" a nobleman entirely devoted to the papal see, cried 
that 6 the pilgrims would never submit to this ; since 
it was not to convert heretics, or to show mercy to 
them, but to kill them, that they had taken the 
cross.' The abbot Arnold, better acquainted with 
the obstinate devotion of the heretics, replied, ' Fear 
not, for I believe that very few r will be converted. 5 "t 

Shortly after, the crusaders entered the castle 
chanting the Te Beum, and preceded by the cross 
and by the standards of Montfort. 

God's children had assembled in two Yaudois 
churches, the men in one, the women in the other, 
and while the fanatical bands of Rome began to sing 
the Te Deum, they calmly responded by chanting 
one of their simple hymns of praise, pausing be- 

* Petri Vail. Gem., Hist. Albig., cap. XXXV., p. 586* 
t Ibid. p. 588. 



98 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tween each sob of the music to encourage each 
other by a mute caress, or to seek new strength in 
fervent prayer. Not one flinched ; not one made 
the slightest effort to escape the awful doom which 
each knew awaited him. The honor of becoming a 
martyr for the holy cause of that sweet Jesus who 
was himself a man of sorrow, gave unwonted digni- 
ty to the rudest carriage. It was the ecstacy of 
religious faith, one of the grandest sermons to which 
that brutal band of heated zealots, smeared with 
martyr-blood, ever listened. 

The abbot, Guy de Vaux Cernai, to fulfil the 
articles of capitulation, came to these Vaudois, and 
began to preach the Roman faith to them. He was 
instantly interrupted. " Sir priest," was the unan- 
imous cry, "we want not your exhortations. We 
have renounced the church of Rome ; we have be- 
come the children of a purer light ; we draw our con- 
solation from a higher source, even from our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for 
evermore, Amen. Your labor is vain; desist. For 
neither life nor death can make us renounce that 
precious Bible whose truths we have embraced. 

The abbot, surprised and strangely moved, next ; 
visited the assembly of Vaudois women. He found , 
them as resolute, and still more enthusiastic in their 
declarations.t 

The ferocious De Montforfc, in his turn, visited | 
the Vaudois. Already he had piled up enormous i 

* Petri Yall. Cern., Hist. Albig., cap. XXXVII. , p. 583. 
f Ibid. 



THE BEIGN OF TEEEOE. 



99 



masses of dry wood. The executioners, in their 
black gowns, stood ready. The impatient soldiery 
clamored hoarsely for the fete to begin. " Be eon- 
verted to the Roman faith" said the ruthless cru- 
sader, "or ascend this pile" Xone were shaken. 
The wood was fired ; the whole square was envel- 
oped in a tremendous conflagration. The greedy 
tongues of the lurid flame licked the crackling wood 
as if hungry and impatient for their human prey. 
The Taudois were conducted to their funeral pyre, 
but no violence was necessary to compel them to 
enter the blazing, torturing fire ; they voluntarily 
precipitated themselves into it, their sweet Proven- 
cal hymns quivering upon their lips, or else repeat- 
ing that grandest of the beatitudes; "Blessed ore ye 
when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shedl 
soy eul manner of evil against you falsely, for ray soke. 
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for greed is your re- 
ward in heaven ; for so persecuted they the prophets 
which were before you"* High above the fierce 
crackling of the flames, high above the hoarse roar 
of the fanatic multitude, rose the pathetic wail of 
the Taudois supplication, until God came to their 
deliverance, and through the open and thrice wel- 
come door of death their unfettered souls winged 

* St. Matthew 5:11, 12. Petri Cern., cap. XXXVII., p. 584. 
We 'are indebted to this monk, the panegyrist both of his abbot 
Guy de Yaux Cernai and Simon de YEontfort a bigoted Romanist, 
who narrates gleefully the most hideous details of the Yaudois per- 
secution, for the account given above of the conduct of the Mi- 
nerva "heretics." His account is more summarily confirmed by 
the "Historia de las Faiets de Tolosa." 



100 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



their way to that bourne where " the wicked cease 
from troubling, and the weary be at rest." 

The capture of Minerva was quickly followed by 
the siege of Termes, a strong castle upon the bor- 
ders of Roussilon, which was commanded by its 
lord, a valiant captain named Raymond of Termes. 
This gallant soldier made a grand defence for 
" Christ and liberty." The patience of the crusad- 
ers was sorely tried, and De Montfort beheld his 
army terribly thinned by sickness and the Vaudois 
sword. He made a fresh appeal to the fanaticism 
of the French provinces, each of which, in response, 
dispatched in its turn a numerous contingent to his 
camp. Meantime, after four weary months of inces- 
sant combat, gaunt famine stared the Vaudois in 
the face, and thirst parched their throats. An 
attempt was made to escape from the castle into 
the surrounding mountains. 

The Vaudois did indeed pass the first line of 
De Montfort's intrenchments, and dispersing in the 
shadowy recesses of the country, shaped their flight 
towards Catalonia. But soon their escape became 
known in the camp of the crusaders. The knights 
mounted in hot haste and scoured the roads ; the 
men-at-arms, impressing peasants to guide them, 
searched the innermost recesses of the mountains. 
Each one exhorted the other not to let those who 
had cost the host so much sweat and blood escape 
their vengeance. 

The unhappy Vaudois, encumbered by aged men, 
by women, by children, were speedily overtaken and 



THE BEIGN OF T EBB OB. 



101 



remorselessly, slaughtered where they stood. A few 
were conducted alive to the presence of Simon de 
Montfort, among the number the gallant Raymond 
of Termes. These, with the exception of their lord, 
were publicly burned alive for the edification of the 
crusaders. But De Montfort reserved Raymond 
of Termes for a more hapless lot. He confined him 
at the bottom of a tower in Carcassonne, in a damp 
dungeon whose walls were coated with ice, where, 
with exquisite cruelty, he suffered him to languish 
for many years,* a prototype of the wretched pris- 
oners of the Inquisition, or perhaps of that myste- 
rious "iron mask," whose lineage is enshrouded 
with such gloomy interest in French history. 

The miserable inhabitants of this unhappiest 
of countries found no asylum which could protect 
them. Neither woodland dell nor mountain cavern 
could screen them from the keen sight of the hun- 
ters of the Romish Babylon. Provence shivered 
in mute sympathy with the agony of her children. 
The pagan cruelty of the most monstrous of the 
Roman emperors was white when set against the 
blackness of De Montfort's infamy. Torquemada 
himself might have learned from him new lessons 
in the cruel skill of torture. Horror was heaped 
upon horror, until the benumbed and decimated 
Vaudois began to creep with languid footsteps 
across the borders of a territory surrendered to 
the ravage of demoniacs into happier lands. 

* Petri Tail. Cem., Hist, Albig., cap. XLIL, p. 592. Hist, de 
las Faicts, etc., p. 29. Ber. Gmdonis, Vita Iniiocentii HI. 5 p. 482. 



102 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE REVOLT. 

At length even the timid patience of Count Ray- 
mond of Toulouse was exhausted. He had surren- 
dered every thing, promised every thing, submitted 
to every thing, in his efforts to court a reconciliation 
with the church. But cozened and maltreated by 
the perfidious minions of the pontifical see, he was 
now goaded to desperation, and like the hunted 
stag, turned at bay. "Well would it have been for 
his knightly fame and for his Christian honor if, 
instead of faltering so long, he had at the outset 
united with his nephew in the defence of their 
mutual states. 

He now formed a close alliance with the counts 
of Comiges and of Foix, with Gaston, viscount of 
Bearn, Savary de Maul^on, seneschal of Aquitaine, 
and the other lords of those provinces who were 
accused of heresy or of tolerance, and whose inter- 
ests were united with his own.* 

Count Raymond also negotiated a treaty of 
offence and defence with Don Pedro of Aragon ; 
and gathering his forces well in hand, dashed with 
gallant purpose against the invaders of his coun- 
try, t 

« Sism., Hist, of Albig., p. 95. t 



THE REVOLT. 



103 



De Montfort also was at the head of a fine 
army, inured to danger, well disciplined, and accus- 
tomed to victory. 

He first advanced to Lavaur, a strong castle 
five leagues distant from Toulouse. This strong- 
hold, afterwards raised to the rank of an episcopal 
see, was then the property of a widow named Gui- 
raude, whom her brother Aimery de Montreal had 
recently joined, with eighty other knights like him- 
self despoiled by the crusaders of their fiefs. Aim- 
ery, Guiraude, and most of their defenders, were all 
open believers in the Taudois creed. They had 
opened an asylum to those of the reformed who 
were persecuted in the various adjacent villages ; so 
that their fortress, which was kept well stored and 
well manned, and which was surrounded with strong 
walls and girded with deep ditches, was esteemed 
one of the principal seats of the heresy.* 

The defence of Lavaur was long and stubborn. 
But at length the fanaticism, the numbers, and the 
pernicious skill of the crusaders triumphed ; the 
city was taken by assault, and De Montfort, behold- 
ing his too ardent soldiers already busied in the 
work of indiscriminate massacre, besought them 
rather to make prisoners, that the priests of the 
living God might not be deprived of their promised 
joys.f "Very soon' 5 — we here quote from the nar- 
rative of the monk of Yaux Cernai, himself an eye- 
witness of the scene — u they dragged out of the 

* Petri Vail. Gem., Hist. Albigens, cap. XLIX., p. 596. 
t Ibid. 



104 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



castle Aimery cle Montreal and other knights to 
the number of eighty. The noble count of Mont- 
fort immediately ordered these to be hanged ; but 
as Aimery, the stoutest of them, was strung up, the 
gallows fell, for in their haste the executioners had 
not well fixed it in the ground. The count, seeing 
that this would cause great delay, ordered the rest 
to be massacred; and the pilgrims receiving the 
command with the greatest avidity, very soon slew 
them on the spot* The lady of the castle, who was 
a sister of Aimery and an execrable heretic, was, 
by the count's order, thrown alive into a pit, which 
was slowly filled up with stones. AfteJ^vards our 
pilgrims collected the innumerable heretics who 
had fled to this citadel, and burned them alive with 
the utmost joy."* 

Such is the gloating recital of an unblushing 
monk who was at once the witness and the pane- 
gyrist of these freezing horrors. 

The crusaders quitted the ruins of Lavaur to 
hasten forward to the siege of Toulouse, Count 
Raymond's capital. 

" This city," says Sismondi, " was far from hav- 
ing been completely converted to the reformation 
of the Vaudois ; the Romanists still composed the 
greater number of the inhabitants, though the Vau- 
dois were numerous and counted their disciples 

* Petri Vail. Cern., Hist. Albigens, cap. LIIL, pp. 598, 599. 
This account is confirmed by Bernardi Guidonis in the Vita Inno- 
centi III., p. 482, where we are informed that four hundred of the 
Vaudois were burned at Lavaur. 



THE KEVOLT. 



105 



among the most enlightened citizens. The magis- 
trates, when asked why they did not drive out the 
heretics, replied, ' We cannot ; we have been brought 
up among them, we have relations among them, and 
we daily witness the goodness of their lives.' The 
Eomanism of Toulouse was therefore very different 
from that of Northern France. The proverbial im- 
precation, 6 1 would rather be a priest, than have done 
s\ich a thing? was as common in Eoman as in Vau- 
dois mouths. Indeed the Romanism of Toulouse 
was so unnaturally liberal, owing to the leaven of 
the Reformation, as quite to justify the indignant 
affirmation of the most ancient historian of the cru- 
sade, that Toulouse ought rather to be called Tota 
dolosa"* 

Still the bishop Fouqu6t had imbued a number 
of the most ignorant citizens with his own fanati- 
cism. These formed themselves into a society 
called The White Company, five thousand of whom 
had joined De Montfort beneath the walls of La- 
vaur.t This society had erected a tribunal by its 
own authority, before w T hich it dragged those w T ho 
were accused by its spies of being Vaudois. The 
partisans of the Reformation, reinforced by the 
friends of toleration, formed a counter association 
called The Black Company, whose object it was to 
resist and punish the lawless outrages of the fanat- 
ics. These two troops met often in the streets, 
armed, and with ensigns displayed ; and many 

* Sismondi, History of the Albigenses, p. 99. 
t Ibid. 

5* 



106 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



towns, which belonged to one side or the other, 
w r ere alternately besieged.* "Thus," says William 
Puy Laurens, a contemporaneous chronicler, " did 
our Lord, by the ministry of his servant the bishop, 
instead of a bad peace, excite among them a good 
war/'t 

But while Fouqu6t was striving to kindle a war 
among his flock, Count Raymond was busied in 
restoring peace among his subjects. He succeeded 
so well that, when De Montfort appeared before 
the city and summoned it to surrender, the united 
voice of the city spoke in the tone of the consul, 
who said that Toulouse refused either to renounce 
its fidelity to its count, notwithstanding his excom- 
munication, or to deliver up to punishment those of 
its citizens who were suspected of cherishing the 
Vaudois tenets.J 

Fouquet, bitterly angered at this refusal, in- 
stantly called in his priests, assembled them in a 
body at the cathedral, excommunicated all the Tou- 
lousians, and then quitted the city barefoot at the 
head of his monks, who carried the holy sacrament 
in the procession and chanted litanies as they 
marched.§ 

However, Toulouse did not suffer the Site to 
which its charitable bishop had deserted it. On 

© Guill. de Podie Laur. , cap. XV, , p. 675. 
t Ibid, p. 675 

t Sism., Hist. Albigen., p. 100. Fleury, Hist. Eccles. de las 
Faicts de Tolosa, p. 30. 

§ Petri Vail. Cern., cap. LV., p. 600. 



THE REVOLT. 



107 



the contrary, Count Raymond, assisted by the 
counts of Foix and of Comiges, so pressed De 
Montfortj that he was not only compelled to raise 
the siege of Toulouse, but to retreat in his turn 
before the victorious Provencal squadrons to the 
shelter of one of his strong-holds, Castelnaudory.* 

But De Montfort's cry for aid soon brought 
another swarm of fanatics to his assistance. Count 
Raymond was repulsed. The country which, in his 
hour of misfortune, had Tented its hate against him 
by rising in universal insurrection and spewing 
forth his garrisons, was again furiously harried; 
while Count Raymond retired into Axagon to re- 
cruit his forces and to form a junction with his 
royal ally and kinsman. t 

Marked by these and similar vicissitudes, seve- 
ral years passed sadly by. In the autumn of 1213 
the disastrous battle of Muret was fought, in which 
king Pedro of Aragon, who had generously ad- 
vanced to reinstate his brother in his dignities, lost 
his life,* and Count Raymond's star, with that of 
religious toleration, seemed for ever sunk below 
the angry horizon. 

The ferocious activity of De Montfort was not 
decreased by the victory of Muret, or by the volun- 
tary exile of Count Raymond in the Aragonese ter- 

- * Petri Vail. Corn... cap. 55, p. 601. 
t Prenves de l'Histoire de Languedoc, p. 232. Hist, de las 
Faicts, etc., p. 38. Lettre des Habitants de Toulouse a Pierre, 
Eoi d' Aragon. 

% Raynaldi, Annal. Eccl., 1213, p. 219. Joan Marianas, Hist. 
Hisp., N cap. 2, p. 558. 



108 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ritories. Entering upon that unhappy nobleman's 
vacant countship, he ravaged it for the third time 
from corner to corner, and himself assuming the 
reins of government, with the congenial Fouqu^t as 
his adviser, gave full sway to his bigotry and insa- 
tiable ambition. 

In 1216, Pope Innocent III. died.* His pon- 
tificate had been one of the most stormy and arbi- 
trary in the papal annals. Possessed of remarkable 
executive talent, and of an ambition as far reaching 
as that of Lucifer, no one of the popes, excepting 
perhaps Hildebrand, had done so much to consoli- 
date the Roman despotism. He was merciless in 
the execution of his ecclesiastical projects, steeled 
against the presumptuous wretch who ventured to 
reject his creed, impious in his profanation of God's 
name and of the cross of Christ, and his memory is 
burdened with the inception of the Inquisition, with 
the incorporation of the most perfidious maxims 
into the canons of his church, and with the curses 
of those innocent children of the Most High, the 
Vaudois, whom his stentorian voice, echoing over 
Europe, first taught the nations to persecute. 

Meantime Count Raymond was not idle. Se- 
cretly informed of all that was passing in Provence, 
he learned with joy that the barbarous and iron 
rule of Simon de Montfort was felt to be intolera- 
ble by the most tolerant people on the face of the 
globe. The inhabitants of Toulouse dispatched an 
embassy to invite him to return to them, and pledg- 

* Bernardi Guidonis, Vita Innocentii III. 



THE KEVOLT. 



109 



ing themselves to support him with the heartiest 
and most loving zeal.* 

Encouraged by these attestations of attachment, 
the count raised an army in Aragon and Catalonia, 
at the head of which, after some reverses, he finally 
marched, in 1217, into Provence, entering once more 
his ancient capital amid the joyous acclamations of 
the populace. t 

De Montfort's mingled fanaticism and ambition 
made him equal to the occasion. Instantly dis- 
patching Fouquet, bishop of Toulouse, with James 
de Yitry, the historian of the last combats of the 
Holy Land, into France, to preach a new crusade, 
he summoned his brother Guy de Montfort and 
his son Am amy to his side, and hastening towards 
Toulouse, hoped to attack it before the citizens 
could rebuild their levelled- walls, and while, haunt- 
ed by the memory of former chastisements, they 
yet hesitated between affection and fear 4 

Appearing before the capital early in Septem- 
ber, the crusaders at once made a vigorous assault. 
They were as vigorously hurled back into the sur- 
rounding ditches; while Simon's brother Guy, to- 
gether with his nephew the count of Bigorre, fell 
dangerously wounded. 

De Montfort then commenced a regular siege, 
at . the same time sending his wife Alice of Mont- 
morency to the court of Philip Augustus, to solicit 

* Histoire de las Faicts de Tolosa, p. 45. 
t Hist, Albigenses, cap. LXXXIY., LXXXY., p." 662. Sism., 
Hist. Albig.,»p. 143, t Fleury, Hist, Eccles. 



110 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



his aid.* Meantime the siege proved tedious. Pro- 
longed through the winter, it dragged ineffectually 
into the ensuing spring and summer. Daily dart- 
ing from their citadels, the Toulousians stung their 
besiegers with constantly increasing venom. 

At length, on the 25th of June, 1218, Count Ray- 
mond made a sally, and pushing resolutely towards 
one of De Montfort's most destructive engines, 
called a "cat," because with its ponderous paw it 
beat breaches in the wall, captured it. 

The butcher of the Vaudois was at mass when 
the news of the sortie was brought to him. In- 
stantly arming himself, he headed his men-at-arms, 
and charged fiercely to the rescue of his favorite 
engine. He was successful. The Vaudois were 
repulsed. But while De Montfort stood with his 
battalion before the unwieldy paw of his strange 
machine, an enormous stone, cast with Titanic 
power and with vengeful certainty from a catapulta 
upon the city walls, struck the redoubted monster 
full upon the head, and hurled him maimed and 
lifeless to the ground, while his countenance was 
still distorted with a grin of sardonic satisfaction 
on account of his latest and last success.t 

Amaury de Montfort, the dead fanatic's son and 
heir, collected his scattered and affrighted soldiers, 

* Hist, de las Faicts d' Arm as de Tolosa, p. 93. 

f Petri Valli Cernai, Hist. Albigen., cap, LXXXVL, p. 664. 
Guil. de Podie, cap. XXX., p. 684. Hist, de las Faicts de Tolosa, 
p. 94. Hist, de Languedoc, liv. XXIII., chap. XXVHL, p. 303, 
Sism., Hist. Albigenses, p. 150. 



THE REVOLT. 



Ill 



and receiving their homage and oath of fidelity as 
liis father's successor in the usurped countship of 
Toulouse, for a little longer persisted in the siege 
of the jubilant city. 

But in vain. In the latter days of July, 1218, he 
retired "with his shattered cohorts into Carcassonne, 
■where De Montfort was buried with great pomp.* 

* Petri VaUis Cern., Hist. Albig., cap. XXXVI., p. 664, Gtril. 
de Podie, cap. XXX.. p. 681. Hist, de las Faicts de Tolosa, p. 
94 Hist, de Languedoc, liv. XXIII., ch. XXVIII. 3 p. 303. Sis- 
raondi. Hist. Albig.. p. 150. 



112 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAP TEE VIII. 
THE FINAL MASSACKE. 

Foe a few brief years Provence enjoyed com- 
parative repose. Its singular fertility, which the 
Vandal hoof of war was unable to tread out, soon 
made Languedoc begin once more to smile. After 
De Montfort's death, the demon of fanaticism fled 
with a shriek. Count Raymond, old and broken, 
delegated his government to his son Eaymond VII., 
already rendered illustrious by high exploits, and 
who, possessed of a more experienced constancy 
and of a loftier character, seemed destined for a 
happier reign.* 

Home, torn by internecine broils, and ruled by 
the irresolute sceptre of Honorius IIP, who had 
succeeded the grasping Innocent, appeared to relax 
its vigilance. Northern Europe, engaged in pre- 
paring for another crusade against the Saracens, 
was for a moment oblivious of Provence, where her 
knights considered that they had drowned the Vau- 
dois church in the blood of its martyrs. Philip 
Augustus, busied in the west in wrenching English 
France from the craven grasp of king John, was 
inclined to temporize with the Provencals. The 
Vaudois nobles had united and driven out Amaury 
de Montfort from the viscounty of Alby and Be- 
* Sism., Hist. Crusade against the Albigenses, p. 144. 



THE FINAL MASSACRE. 



113 



ziers, installing the son and heir of the murdered 
prince, Raymond Roger, in his rightful states. The 
horizon was lit up with a deceptive brilliancy— too 
soon, alas, followed by the devastating storm — and 
the Vaudois church, rising from the sea of gore, 
enjoyed an apparent resurrection, and with un- 
shaken constancy relumed the lamp of the ancient 
faith.* 

After the extinction of a fire, some sparks will 
still lie concealed under the ashes. These, fanned 
by the gale, may kindle a new flame, which, after 
devouring all the combustible matter within its 
reach, will in its turn be quenched. So the mo- 
mentary toleration in Provence recalled the preach- 
ers of the crusades, reattracted the attention of Eu- 
rope, reawoke the napping fanaticism of the faith- 
ful, and launched a new horde of brutal enthusiasts 
upon the Vaudois, so that those of them who had 
escaped the first massacre were mostly involved in 
the searching destruction of the second. 

In 1222, while the gathering tempest soughed 
ominously in the scowling heavens, but before the 
fell fury of the storm burst, Raymond YI. died sud- 
denly at Toulouse. t Though this prince had shown 
neither distinguished talents nor force of character ; 
though he had been early induced to assent to what 
lie disapproved, and to inscribe his name among 

s On the renewed progress of the Vaudois, not only in Pro- 
vence, but in Leon and Galicia, see Jo. Mariana de rebus Hispan., 
lib. II., cap. V., p. 556. 

t Sisrnondi's History of the Albigenses, p. 165. 



114 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



those who came to ravish his country, and who 
cherished the secret purpose of depriving him of 
his heritage ; though he had submitted with patient 
feebleness to all the ecclesiastical censures, to all 
the personal outrages which the legates, the pope, 
and the council of the Lateran could heap upon 
him, jet he died regretted and loved by his Vaudois 
subjects, who did not forget that he had incurred 
all this contumely by his indulgence towards them ; 
that he had abhorred the bloodshed and racking 
tortures inflicted upon his states by the crusaders ; 
and that, spite of the persuasion with which the 
crusaders had succeeded in inspiring him, that his 
religious duty as well as his temporal interest 
demanded these persecutions, he had always done 
his utmost to check the barbarous zeal of the exe- 
cutioners. 

His administration had been gentle. Public 
liberty in the cities, commerce, manufactures, sci- 
ence, poetry — all had made rapid progress under 
his fostering care. But he was accused of feeling 
compassion for heretics. For this reason he was 
not only persecuted through life, but the spiteful 
vengeance of Eome followed him even for ages after 
death. His son could never obtain the honors of 
sepulture for his body; His coffin was deposited 
near the burial-ground of St. John of Toulouse, 
waiting the permission of the holy see for its inter- 
ment. It was still there in the middle of the four- 
teenth century ; but as it was only of w^ood, and as 
no one took care for its preservation, it was broken, 



THE FINAL MASSACKE. 



115 



and liis bones were dispersed in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. The skull alone of the hapless count was 
long preserved in the chateau of the Hospitallers of 
St. John of Toulouse, to which order Raymond VI. 
had once belonged.* 

In the year following the death of the count of 
Toulouse, 1223, Philip Augustus breathed his last.t 
One of the ablest kings since the weighty sceptre 
of Charlemagne swayed Europe, he aspired to con- 
solidate an empire as vast as that of his great pred- 
ecessor. He did indeed add materially to the gran- 
deur of mediaeval France, leaving to his successor 
an enlarged kingdom whose resources were care- 
fully husbanded. 

The ferocious bishop Fouqu6t, who was at 
Eheims on the accession of Louis VIII., better 
known in history as Saint Louis, eagerly seized that 
opportunity to enlist the superstitious young king 
in a new crusade against the Vaudois. Louis lis- 
tened approvingly to the seductive eloquence of the 
renegade troubadour, ordered the sacred war to be 
preached throughout France, persuaded Honorius 
III. to kindle the zeal of Europe at large, and then, 
arming with avidity, swept like a vulture to the 
banquet of blood.J 

Then the cruelties of De Montfort's regime were 

•* Sism., Hist. Albigenses, Eng. transl., p. 166. 

t Chronique St. Denys, p. 416. Kaynaldi, Annal. Eccles. 
Fleury, Hist. Eccles. 

J Prenves de l'Hist. de Languedoc. Bernardi Guidonis, Yita 
Honorii III., p. 570. Matthew of Paris, p. 267, et Hist, de France, 
p. 758. 



116 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



reenactecl. The crusaders had returned with seven 
other devils worse than the first. Hell was once 
more in. full chorus, while all good Romanists join- 
ed in the tune. Monks marched from city to city 
preaching ferocity, and then facilitating by perfidy 
the execution of their counsels. The fanatics pil- 
laged towns and villages and castles ; outraged 
women, and even little girls; and then forming in 
circles around the blazing stakes at which the Yau- 
dois were burning, with an impious affectation of 
devotion, chanted in unison the hymn Veni Creator, 
while the wail of their tortured victims ascended to 
the pitying heavens.* 

No human calculation can ascertain with any 
precision the dissipation of wealth, or the wanton 
destruction of innocent life, which were the conse- 
quences of these crusades against a people whose 
only crime was that their lives bloomed with the 
beatitudes. Scarcely a peasant but reckoned some 
member of his family cut short in the flower of his 
days by fanatical violence ; not one but had repeat- 
edly seen his property ravaged and his household 
insulted by the crusaders. More than three quar- 
ters of the knights and landed proprietors of the 
proscribed territories had been despoiled of their 
fiefs.f 

Yet the sanguinary fury of fanaticism was not 
glutted. In 1229, the council of Toulouse estab- 
lished the Inquisition in Provence as a permanent 

* Sismondi, History of the Albigenses, p. 129. 
t Ibid., p. 145. 



THE FINAL MASSACEE. 



117 



institution.* The military power was reinforced by 
the subtlety of the monks. A code of procedure, 
framed for the express purpose of entrapping over- 
cautious heretics into unsafe admissions, was pub- 
licly circulated among the inquisitors. f 

The Vaudois supported their doctrines by the 
authority of the holy Scriptures — the most un- 
learned among them could repeat large portions of 
the Bible by heart. Therefore the first indication 
of heresy was considered to be the citation either 
of the epistles or of the gospels ; the second was 
any exhortation against the vices of the day, or any 
assertion of the necessity of a change of spirit in 
order to be saved ; and the third w r as to show any 
compassion to the prisoners of the Inquisition. J 

The Council of Toulouse decided that the read- \ 
ing of the sacred Scriptures should not be permit- 
ted. ""We prohibit," says the fourth canon of that 
memorable council, " the laity from having the 
books of the Old and New Testaments, unless it be, 
at the most, that any one wishes to have, from de- 
votion, a psalter, a breviary, or the hours of the 
blessed Mary ; but we forbid them, even then, to 
have these translated into the vulgar tongue. "§ 

Another article read thus : " We command that 
whosoever shall be accused of the Vaudois heresy, 
or -be noted with suspicion, shall be deprived in 

* Lambock, Hist. Inq'ui. Matthew of Paris, etc. 
t Hist, de Languedoc, Sism., pp. 233-235. t Ibid. 

§ Labbei, Concil. Tolosau, 1. 11, p. 427, e-t seq. Fleury, Hist. 
Eccles., liv. 79, p. 58. 



118 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



sickness of the assistance of a physician. Like- 
wise, when a sick person shall have received' the 
holy communion of his priest, it is our will that he 
be watched with the greatest care to the clay of 
death or convalescence, that no heretic, nor any one 
suspected of heresy, may have access to such a 
one."* 

A little later, when executions became less fre- 
quent because it was more difficult to procure Vau- 
dois for their attics da fe, it was decreed, that the 
scent of the human hounds might be rendered 
keener by a bribe, that the confiscated property of 
a heretic should be shared between the spy who 
denounced and the judge who condemned him.f 

The philosophy of Eome in these measures is 
evident. The reform had arisen from the first ad- 
vancement in literature, and from the application 
of judicious reason to religious instruction. By 
thickening the darkness, by striking the developing 
mind and conscience of Christendom with a blight, 
this fermentation could be arrested, and mankind 
would bow once more in blind submission to their 
hereditary belief. " I can never admit," wrote Pas- 
quier to the Dominican president, Brulart, " that 
the material arms of De Montfort would have over- 
come the Vaudois without the holy exhortations 
and the inquisitorial compulsions of St. Dominic 
and St. Francis. "J 

« Labbei, Concil. Tolosau, 1. 11, p. 427, et seq. Fleury, Hist. 
Eccles., liv. 79, p. 58. 

f Raynaldi,- Annal. Eccles., A. 1231, 16 et 17. 
t Quoted in Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 17 



THE FINAL MASSACRE. 



119 



The Vaudois met their fate with the meek hero- 
ism of the earliest Christians. Very few renounced 
their faith.* Blood never ceased to flow, nor the 
flames to devour their victims in these provinces, 
now completely abandoned to the dark fanaticism 
of the inquisitors. Tranquillity was never restored, 
persecution was never suspended, even by the death 
of its victims. The Provencals lived in a protracted- 
agony. 

Still the war rao-ed. The French kino; had an- 
other motive besides the extirpation of heresy for 
its prosecution. The struggle had a political phase. 
The French court desired to round the empire into 
symmetrical form by adding to it these provinces, 
which bathed their feet in the blue waters of the 
Mediterranean. t As this object was not defini- 
tively accomplished until the year 12434 the " sa- 
cred war" continued to devastate those fields which 
should have been covered by the richest harvests of 
the south, those cities which had been animated by 
commerce, industry, and intelligence, and to butcher 
that noble population whose devotion to their faith 
is the grandest legacy which the history of that time 
has bequeathed to posterity. 

Beneath the accumulated tortures to which they 
were subjected the Vaudois melted slowly away. 
Their opinions ceased to influence society. The 
Provencal faith was no longer moulded on the 
primitive apostolic model. By the middle of the 

* Fieury. Hist. Eccles. 

f SisiiL, Hist. Albigen., p. 242. J Ibid... pp. 226, 272. 



120 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



thirteenth century the Vaudois had apparently dis* 
appeared. Terror was still extreme, suspicion uni- 
versal. Though the teaching of the proscribed 
doctrine had seemingly ceased, yet the sight of a 
book caused a shudder, and ignorance was a salu- 
tary guarantee of safety.* 

The Vaudois died as grandly as they lived. No 
refinement of torture could rack from their suffer- 
ing lips a disavowal ot their belief. Often they 
scorned to stoop even to concealment. Entering 
voluntarily the lurid fires of the Inquisition, they 
showed how martyrs could die for "Christ and 
liberty." Gaining strength from the devotional 
rapture of St. Paul, they earned a right to repeat 
with him, 

" What shall we then say to these things ? If 
God be for us, who can be against us ? He that 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all, how shall he not with him also freely give 
us all things ? 

" Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's 
elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that 
condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, 
that is risen .again, who is even at the right hand 
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who 
shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, 
or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? As it is written, 
For thy sake we are killed all the day long ; we are 
accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all 

* Sism., Hist. Albigenses, p. 238. 



THE FINAL MASSACRE. 



121 



these things we are more than conquerors, through 
him that loved us. 

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to sep- 
arate us from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord."* 

* Romans 8 ; 31-39. 



HtiL:i. until. 



6 



122 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEB IX. 

THE INTERREGNUM. 

The crime against the Vauclois was not the 
separate wickedness of a single nation. It was a 
mosaic of infamy, the legitimate, inevitable off- 
spring of an ecclesiasticism which had employed 
every art to pervert the understanding and to cor- 
rupt the heart. 

The Italian, Innocent III., first gave the signal 
for this outrage upon human nature ; and he also 
bestowed the recompense. He continually sharp- 
ened the swords of the murderers, blunted in 
slaughter. When the fanaticism of Europe droop- 
ed, weary in its madness, he aroused it once more 
to raving fury by his clamorous appeals. 

The two Spaniards, the bishop of Ozma and 
St. Dominic, the founders of the Inquisition, first 
taught the perfidious art of seeking out in the vil- 
lages those whom the priests were afterwards to tie 
to their stakes. The Germans, invited by their 
monks, flocked from the extremities of Austria to 
glut their faith in massacre. And the English 
Matthew Paris renders zealous testimony to the 
activitjr of his countrymen in the same abandoned 
cause, and to their triumphant joy at the miracle — ■ 



THE INTEEEEGNUM. 



123 



for so lie called tlie treachery of Beziers* — which 
had avenged the Lord.t 

But the crime from which individual nationali- 
ties are to be absolved, is to be laid upon the con- 
science of Europe at large, and especially upon the 
pernicious counsels of the Roman church, which 
incited it, and juggled mankind into believing that 
the elect could be saved by a baptism of innocent 
and Christian blood. 

Thus the reformation, of which the church had 
so much need, the light which was to illuminate 
the mind, to restore to morals their purity, to rea- 
son its empire, and to religion its pristine flavor 
and omnipotence, was repelled for three whole cen- 
turies, and even much longer with regard to those 
Italian and Spanish provinces which spoke the 
Romanesque languages. 

The Yaudois taught too soon, Spreading their 
pure instructions through all the countries of the 
western empire in the superstitious infancy of Eu- 
rope; called to combat with an established and 
arrogant ecclesiasticism — while the intellect of the 
Sclavonic, the Latin, the Anglo-Saxon, and the Ger- 
manic nations was not yet sufficiently awake to 
perceive the light, but saw men as trees walking — 
they had no fulcrum upon which to rest their lever. 
Their truth was throttled by the mailed hand of 
Home. 

As in the impious days of the crucifixion, "from 

6 See Chapter 5. p. 75. and onwards. 

f Matthew of Paris. Loudon edition, p. 203. 



124 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land 
unto the ninth hour,"" so now, when Christ was 
crucified again in the person of his gospel, an aw- 
ful darkness intervened. A frightful interregnum 
yawned through three hundred years. 

The Vatican smiled happily. It flattered itself 
that it had for ever fettered the human mind, that 
it had for ever choked the wail of outraged con- 
science, that it had for ever crushed the insurrec- 
tion of the soul. The Vatican was mistaken. The 
interregnum meant postponement, not conquest. For 
two hundred years the fires had been kindled, yet 
still at intervals Romanists abandoned the faith of 
their fathers to embrace that which must lead them 
to the flames. In vain did the Inquisition essay to 
compel the unfetterable mind to submission, and 
to establish an invariable rule of faith. It saw 
in the midst of the darkness which it had cre- 
ated some luminous points loom up on the hori- 
zon. It saw those sparks which it thought that 
it had for ever quenched, but scattered by its 
folly, to light the universe once more. It had no 
sooner conquered, than it was obliged to renew 
the combat. 

The Vaudois were not exterminated, they were 
only dispersed. Proscribed, far from their coun- 
try, now no more theirs, alas, they wandered from 
the shores of the Mediterranean to the borders of 
the frozen sea, from the Carpathian mountains to 
the Orkney islands. Many also found their way 

* St. Matthew 27 : 45. 



THE INTEEEEGNUM. 



125 



into those obscure Piedmontese valleys which had 
been the cradle of their reform.* 

Finding an asylum in the cottages of the peas- 
ants or poor artisans, whose labors they shared in 
profound secrecy, they taught their hosts to read 
the gospel in common, to pray in their native tongue 
without the ministry of priests, while they them- 
selves continued to praise God and to submit grate- 
fully to the chastisements which his hand had in- 
flicted as the means of their sanctification. 

The sufferings which they had endured for their 
sake made them cherish their tenets with the most 
reverential awe, and hand them down from genera- 
tion to generation unaltered, uncorrupted, embalm- 
ed in the traditions of the Languedocian massacre. 

Unable under the jealous eye of Rome to enjoy 
the external consolations of religion, they were shut 
up still more to internal communion. They ceased 
to care for the visible world. They placed their 
hands in God's, and sobbed their griefs away upon 
His heart who is the great Consoler. They believed 
that heaven was the substantial world, that its joys 
were the real joys, even for the body and the sense, 
and that there was no delight except as it flowed 
from God into heaven, and as it descended from 
heaven into time. 

• Though robed in rags, they esteemed themselves 
clothed more richly than the earth is when she 
makes herself gay with flowers for her summer 

* Sisni. , Hist. Albig. Bossuet, Hist, cles Variations. Calvin's 
Letters, etc. 



126 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



bridegroom ; more richly than the firmament is 
when it wraps round itself the jewelled mantle of 
the stars, puts constellations beneath its feet and 
sunlight galaxies upon its head. For the joy of 
God is woven into garments more splendid than 
those which wrap the flaming spheres, 

The truths of salvation which Christ had taught, 
which he had embalmed for ever by his sacred suf- 
ferings, by the bloody sweat, and by the death on 
Calvary, were to them august beyond all pictured 
magnificence, radiant beyond all starry and all so- 
lar splendors, sweeter than the embodied essences 
of all odors which, the spring pours in her jewelled 
cup before God, more musical than the harmonies 
that swell in grand cathedrals, that echo from hill 
and vale in summer woods, that come borne in soft 
sweetness in the happy talk of lovers, in the song 
of storied saints, in voices of rapture pulsing by 
inoonlight over time's dim sea. Before the super- 
nal vision of God's judgment they could only kneel 
in speechless adoration ; if they tried to sing, the 
hymn wailed out but brokenly through the imper- 
fect human instrument. 

After their dispersion, the Vanclois seemed to 
vanish from the sullen history of the time. Seek- 
ing safety in obscurity, they no longer, to the su- 
perficial observer, appeared to impress their creed 
upon the human mind. Yet a deeper view dis- 
closes that they were the scatterers of God's seed 
in the furrows of these centuries, that they carried 
the unflickering taper of the gospel from which the 



THE INTEKKEGNUM. 



127 



later reformers were enabled to light their torches. 
They were the bridge which spanned the black 
abyss which yawned between the overthrow of the 
Vaudois church in Languedoc and the birth of 
Luther. 

Though it is not clear that any of the Provencal 
Christians established themselves in England, it 
can hardly be doubted that "Wickliffe acquired his 
first evangelical conceptions from their preachers. 
Wickliffe was a profound politician before he be- 
came a luminous teacher of divinity. ~ A favorite at 
the court of St. James, he was dispatched in early 
life by Edward III. on several diplomatic missions 
to the popes at Rome and Avignon. Travelling 
therefore through the south of France at a time 
when the Yauclois were hunted and burned with 
patient vindictiveness, his acute and inquiring mind 
could not but occupy itself with investigating the 
grounds of their dissent.* A little later, Wickliffe 
held and publicly taught precisely the same tenets 
which he had seen men roasted alive for holding in 
Provence. 

It may therefore be legitimately concluded that 
the Vaudois convinced the great Englishman that 
the church of Rome itself was wallowing in heresy. 

Many of the Vaudois took refuge in Germany 
and in Bohemia, where Peter Waldo, their most 
celebrated teacher, had found an asylum when driv- 
en by priestly spite from his native Lyons, from 

* Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 16. Life of Wickliffe, Lon- 
don, 1783, p. 63. 



128 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Dauphin} 7 , from Picardy, from Saxony ; and where 
he had died surrounded by the Bohemian moun- 
taineers, the ancestors of Huss and Jerome."" Thus 
it was that God inoculated Bohemia with the truths 
of primitive Christianity. When Wickliffe's writ- 
ings became known, the Bohemian Vaudois rallied, 
and resumed existence as an independent evangel- 
ical church, t 

An interesting historical episode proves that 
there were still some Vaudois remaining in South- 
ern France in the middle of the fifteenth century. 
It is recorded that the Vaudois of the towns of Ca- 
brieres and Merindole, upon being menaced by the 
inquisitors — always busy, always ubiquitous through 
these sad years —dispatched deputies to Louis XII. 
to plead their cause before that able and just king. 
Although the priests strove to prevent it, they 
secured an audience. The Vaudois ambassadors 
declared that they received and taught the plena- 
ry inspiration of the holy Scriptures, the apostles' 
creed, the decalogue, and the Christian sacraments ; 
but that they did not acknowledge the authority of 
the pope, nor adopt the antichristian dogmas of the 
Romish Babylon. Louis, surprised at the intelli- 
gence, moderation, and Christian ajDpearance of the 
deputies, sent an envoy to inquire on the spot if 
their assertions were indeed correct. The commis- 
sioner, on his return, reported " that in those parts 

* Waddingion, Hist. Chh. previous to the Reformation, p. 292. 
f L'Enfant, Hist, de la Guerre des Hussites, et du Concile de 
Bale. 



THE INTEKKEGNUM. 



129 



baptism was administered ; that the articles of faith 
and the ten commandments were taught; that the 
Sabbath was solemnly observed ; that the word of 
God was intelligently expounded, while portions of 
it were familiar to the most unlettered rustics ; and 
that as to the fornications and poisonings of which 
they were accused, no instance of either could be 
found." "Wonderful!" ejaculated Louis; "these 
people are much better Christians than myself and 
all the rest of my orthodox subjects ; let them re- 
main undisturbed." And this Jiat of the king was 
respected scrupulously throughout his life.* 

For some generations the Piedmontese Vaudois, 
although known to exist, were suffered to remain in 
despised security.f But this may have been owing 
to the fact that the latter part of the thirteenth cen- 
tury and the commencement of the fourteenth were 
occupied with the fierce struggles between the rival 
factions in Italy of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. It 
is also possible that the preaching of another cru- 
sade in the East,:|: Europe's last mighty effort to 
wring the Holy Sepulchre from the Saracen, left 
their persecution to abate. 

But the Vaudois barely sufficed to keep aglow 
the sinking embers of the gospel in these dismal 
ages. Huss with his Bohemians, Wickliffe with his 
Lollards, were in too fearful a minority to inaugu- 
rate any thing but feeble local reforms, trodden 

* Lampe, Hist. Eccl., p. 291. Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 16. 
Turretin, Hist. Eccl. \ Wadding-ton, Hist. Chh., p. 292. 

t Hallain, Hist. Middle Ages. 

6* 



130 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



clown, with those who launched them, as soon as 
the Roman sentinels descried them from the Vati- 
can. They were powerless to reshape the character 
of their epoch ; their opinions did not mould society 
at large. They could only wait and suffer and 
pray, floating down the centuries faith personified. 

As proverbially it is darkest just before the 
morning smiles, so now the gloom wrapped the uni- 
verse, thick, impenetrable, ominous. Then came 
those days never to be remembered without a blush, 
the age of dwarfish virtues and gigantic vices; the 
epoch of unreasoning superstition and unbridled 
wrong; the paradise of bigots. Swarms of licen- 
tious priests swept through Europe, sparing neither 
man in their wrath nor woman in their lust. The 
misshapen carcass of nominal Christianity lay huge 
and drunken across Christendom. Grown lazy with 
wicked prosperity, Kome was almost too indolent 
to persecute. 

Decked out in her gaudy rags, gay with silk 
and velvet and satin, the gilded and painted strum- 
pet of the papacy thought only of fetes, of feasts, of 
dances, of pantomimes ; the very services of the 
altar were turned into a carouse.* The church 
traded, like a Jewish huckster, in the relics of saints, 
and bartered her usurped rights for gold with which 
to fill her coffers, emptied in debauchery.t Pon- 
tiffs, like Alexander VI., bloated with wine, with 
murder, with adultery, with incest, sat as God, in 

* D'Aubigne, Hist. Eef., vol. 1, passim, 
j- Miehelet, X«Je of Mar tin Luther, p. 20. 



THE INTEBEEGXUM. 



131 



the temple of God, with horrible profanity cursing 
trie saints, and bestowing the apostolic benediction 
upon sinners with drunken gravity.'' Indecent 
orgies were daily held in the Vatican, which were 
openly attended by the pontifical mistresses. Eu- 
rope was surrendered to the domination of demons, 
while pandemonium held wild jubilee. 

"Thus all did turn degenerate, all depraved, 
Justice and temperance, truth and faith forgot, "f 

But God had long been preparing the way to 
a glorious reformation by a baptism of suffering. 
This reformation was to be the result of two dis- 
tinct forces, the revival of learning and the resur- 
rection of the gospel. The latter was the great 
motor power, but the former was necessary as a 
means. % The ignorance of Europe had enabled 
Rome to stifle the cry of the Vaudois preachers. 
There was no public opinion to which they could 
appeal. There existed but two classes in society, 
lawless despots and breadless serfs. 

The invention of printing insured the triumph 
of nascent Protestantism. By emancipating Europe 
from the thraldom of ignorance, it secured its deliv- 
erance from the harder slavery of Roman ecclesias- 
ticism. Faust, under God, dug Christendom out of 
mediaeval Jesuitism. Henceforth truth could not 
be throttled. Its voice animated ten thousand 



* Ranke, Hist, of the Popes — Alexander VI. 

| Paradise Lost, book 11, p. 34, Mitford's edition. 

I D'Aubigne, Hist. Eef. in Eng., p. 113. 



132 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



never -weary witnesses. It spoke trumpet -toned 
and everlasting through the press. 

Then came Luther. He set before mankind 

"The paths of righteousness, how much more safe 
And full of peace, denouncing wrath to come 
On their impenitence." 

Thus Yaudoisism and learning, the study of the 
classics, of Greek, of Hebrew, the dawn of an eager 
and discriminating intelligence through the culti- 
vation of letters, were the two laboratories of re- 
form. A few earnest souls had discovered the light 
in lowly valleys ; mankind were soon to discern it 
upon the lofty mountain tops, 



RESURRECTION OE REFORM. 133 



CHAPTER X. 

THE RESURRECTION OF REFORM. 

The sixteenth century witnessed tlie resurrec- 
tion of reform. Tlie infant form of civil and relig- 
ions liberty had been rocked in the cradle of an 
earlier epoch, only to die in its bright youth. Now 
the veil of the tomb was rent, and it came forth 
armed with new strength. That era, like a first 
conqueror, founded a new realm, the realm of opin- 
ion. Instantly the customary, the mediaeval, re- 
ceived a check. The scholastic methods of the uni- 
versities began to recede before the progressive 
spirit of emancipated philosophy. The further 
usurpations of paganized Christianity were vetoed 
by the authoritative voice of primitive faith. 

The new instinct was so full and active, that it 
bubbled over into secondary spheres, It showed 
itself even in architecture ; and the Gothic towers 
of the old royal keeps were replaced by creations 
formed on the models of chaste ancient art. It 
showed itself in war, and the mailed, mounted chiv- 
alry went down before the infantry and the artillery 
of- innovating science. 

Moral and political Europe, equally rotten, be- 
gan to be revolutionized. Xow, as always before, 
Borne set herself to subdue the rebellion against 
her theology and her politics, using her old weap- 



134 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ons, thumb-screws, racks, unearthly dungeons, and 
slow fires, invoking the grim horrors of the Inqui- 
sition to aid her in chilling the rising lava-like en- 
thusiasm for the truth. 

But God was not mocked. He sat serenely in 
the blue heavens, making the wrath of man to praise 
him. It had been decreed in His councils who is 
from everlasting to everlasting, that the spiteful 
drama in which Home played the part of Sir Om- 
nipotent should not be lengthened into further acts 
without a vigorous and successful protest. 

When the pontiffs condescended to recite the 
articles of their belief to mediaeval Europe, the 
Amen of Christendom was fiercely fervent. But at 
length Leo X. stepped out upon the balcony of the 
Vatican, and commenced to intone his creed: "We 
believe in the observance of the minutest trifles of 
the ceremonial law ;* we believe that human nature 
is neither hereditarily corrupt nor intrinsically de- 
praved ;+ we believe that the saints and martyrs 
had a superfluity of merit, which they delegated to 
the church, and which, placed in the huge tureen of 
Home, may be ladled out to those hungry souls who 
are willing to buy heaven with a price we believe 
in the theoretical celibacy of the clergy ;§ we be- 
lieve in the dogma of monachism ;|| we believe that 
there exists in the priesthood of the holy see a me- 

* Fleury, Eccl. Hist. 

f Pelagius, in Aug. de Gratia Dei, cap. 4. 

t Waddington, Hist. Chh. 

§ Ibid., Pontificate of Hildebrand. 

|| Ibid., p. 297. 



KESUERECTIOX OF REFOKM. 135 



diatorial caste between God and man ;* we believe 
that tlie pope, sifting as God, in the temple of God, 
cannot err ;t we believe that salvation is to be ob- 
tained by good works, by are Marias, by penances, 
and by gold 4 

And when the courtly Medici's last cadence 
died quite away, as he ended his impious recital, 
while Europe stood ominously silent, a clear, reso- 
nant voice, echoing from the heights of the obscure 
town of Wittemberg, in semi-barbarous Germany, 
replied, " Oh nations, ye have listened to Pope 
Leo's Babylonian heresies : hark ye now to the 
Christian truth ; for thus saith the Lord God : 6 By 
one man sin entered into the world, and death by 
sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all 

* Bossuet, Institutes. 

f D'Aubigne, Hist, Ref., voL I., p. 50. J Ibid. 

The ludicrous yet heated assertion of the papal infallibility, 
made by aU the Roman philosophers and polemics, cannot but 
excite a smile from the historical student. If it be true, the doc- 
trine covers and makes right the lechery and the murders of Alex- 
ander YL. the martial madness of Julius II.. and the palpable er- 
rors of Leo X. It is also difficult to reconcile this claim with the 
fact that for seventy-one years, from 1305 until 1376.. there were 
two infallible heads of the Koman church, one at Home, the other 
at Avignon, each hating the other with mortal hatred, fulminating 
decrees of excommunication against each other, and filling the 
universe with the noise of their dissensions. Pray, which of these 
popes uttered the voice of God? which breathed forth idle wind? 

Pope John XXII. was formally impeached in the early part of 
the fourteenth century, by order of two faithful emperors, backed 
by several prelates, before an ecclesiastical council held at Milan ; 
and his accusers endeavored to convict this infallible pontiff, this 
vicar of Christ, of heretical depravity. And John was forced to 
make a lame . apology. Xot only the Jteel, but the whole body of 
this Achilles is vulnerable. See Y'addington, Hist. Chh., p. 386. 



136 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



have sinned. But not as the offence, so also is the 
free gift. For if by one man's offence death reigned 
by one ; much more they which receive abundance 
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign 
in life by one, Jesus Christ.' "* 

By these words Luther launched the Reforma- 
tion, whose soul was, salvation by faith in Jesus 
Christ. 

Then the mutterers of the mass and the children 
of the Bible joined battle to decide which should 
shape the future. 

That struggle was the epic of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. The Roman publicists have affirmed, and 
certain rationalistic philosophers on both sides of 
the water have claimed, that it meant emancipation 
from the dominion of the religious principle — that 
it meant, not a reformation, but an abolition of Chris- 
tianity. 

But the choral song of the Reformation was not 
materialism. The movement which Luther inaugu- 
rated, and which Calvin organized, did indeed clasp 
hands with liberty and strike off chains ; but only 
as a logical result, not as its chief purpose. The 
object of the Reformation was, to reopen the path 
by which God and man unite. This path, which 
Christ had opened, had been blocked up in ages of 
superstition by the worship paid the Virgin, the 
saints, the host, by meritorious, magical, supererog- 
atory works, by ecclesiastical formalities.! Men 

* Romans 5, passim. 

f D'Aubigne, Ref. in the time of Calvin, vol. 1, p. 318. 



RESURRECTION OF REFORM. 137 



awoke to protest ; Protestantism arose from the 
inner impulses of European life. 

Religion was long the terror of the world. It 
was attempted to dissipate it by amusing nations, 
or to pile it over with strata of society — a layer of 
soldiers, over that a layer of lords, and a king on 
top, with clamps of priests and hoops of castles. 
But the religious sentiment would penetrate this 
motley mountain which lay piled huge and un- 
shapely upon the human conscience ; it would burst 
the hoops, and rive the earthy matter laid on top 
of it. 

"The ethereal mould, 
Incapable of stain, would soon expel 
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, 
Victorious."* 

The reformers recognized the cheat, believed in 
a real unity, heard the cry of smothered conscience 
beneath the mountain of priest-caste which Rome 
had reared w T ith the patient labor of ages, invoked 
God's earthquake to topple it over ; and as layer 
after layer fell, while society grouped itself on the 
level of faith in God, not in men, the angels them- 
selves sang paeans. The overthrow of an ecclesias- 
tical oligarchy, God and man brought face to face 
through faith in Christ, this was the grand work of 
the Reformation, whatever other beneficent results 
might follow in its train. 

So far was Protestantism from involving a prin- 
ciple contradictory to religion : it simply sought 
to comprehend it, and to secure to mankind the lib- 
* Paradise Lost, book 2. 



138 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



erty to understand it, in a more spiritual and unself- 
ish disposition, in opposition to a worldly priest- 
hood ;* it called on man to ground his faith, not on 
the word of a priest, but on the infallible word of 
God. 

In 1519, two years after Luther had openly de- 
nied the infallibility of the church of Home, the col- 
lege of the Sorbonne, the most famous in mediaeval 
Europe, where Reuchlin had studied, where Eras- 
mus had been graduated, but always the champion 
of Latin orthodoxy, denounced the new opinions. 
Twenty-four months later, the Parisian faculty of 
theology published their memorable condemnation 
of the Lutheran heresy.t 

At the same time Leo X. w T as launching the 
thunderbolts of the Yatican upon the Reformation 
in Germany. Attracted by the universal hubbub, 
scholars paused in the first flush of their enthusi- 
asm for resuscitated learning, to look up from their 
Greek text and inquire into the meaning of the din. 
The fascination of ancient letters was forgotten for 
a moment. Persons of the highest stations and of 
the lowest became curious to examine and weigh 
the merits of a controversy to which so much im- 
portance seemed attached. France especially was 
in a fever of excitement. Authentic records show 
that so early as 1523 there were in several of the 
provinces of that realm, and particularly in South- 
ern France, Languedoc, Provence, the ancient seats 

* Ranke's Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, p. 131. 
t Duncan, Religious Wars of France, Introduction, 



KESUKKECTION OF REFORM. 139 



of the Yaudois creed, great numbers both of the 
gentry and the commons who had embraced the 
reformed tenets; and even some of the episcopal 
order were tainted with Luther anism.* 

In 1519, two of Luther's ablest and most elo- 
quent disciples, Martin Bucer, all fire and energy, 
and Melancthon, the personification of calm, per- 
suasive Christian philosophy, had visited France 
and created a desire for reform. f 

At the outset, the omens were favorable to the 
reception of the new theology in France. As the 
abuses of Rome were wide-spread, ripe, and preg- 
nant, the dissenters made many and rapid converts. 
Francis I., who ruled the realm at the commence- 
ment of the Reformation, was the puppet of his own 
vanity, inordinately fond of gayety, pomp, and dis- 
sipation. Without fixed princrples of religion, he 
regarded questions of faith with indifference, so long 
as they did not trench upon the domain of policy. 
The historical rival of Charles V. of Spain, when 
that cunning emperor temporized with the Ger- 
man dissenters, he also tolerated their brothers in 
France. 

Thus it was that the Reformation secured time 
to ground itself in that kingdom ; and this compar- 
ative immunity from persecution, this portentous 
stillness which ushered in a frightful storm, was so 
0 lEosheiin, Eccl. Hist., vol. 4, p. 87. 

f Brantome, Yie de Margaret, vol. 1, p. 38-4. Maiinbourg, 
Hist du Calvinisme, liv. 1, p. 10. Maimbonrg complains of the 
liberty which these insolent doctors took in venturing to interpret 
the Bible differently from Rome. 



140 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



well employed that when the trial hour came, it was 
found that half of France, headed by some of the 
most historic names in her annals, were the devoted 
disciples of the reformed theology.* 

The numbers and influence of these disciples of 
a pure faith soon made them loom up into impor- 
tance. It began to be thought that they might 
subvert the established religion. Influenced by 
this fear, and pushed on by the incessant solicita- 
tion of the churchmen resident at his court, as well 
as by the active example of Charles Y. in the Neth- 
erlands, Francis I. w T as persuaded to persecute the 
reformers, timidly at first, but finally with Titanic 
energy, f 

The French prelates, though immersed in the 
lewd pleasures of the court, were too clear-sighted 
not to see with alarm the precipice upon which 
their order stood. They had sanctioned the aid 
furnished by Francis to foment the rebellion of the 
German Protestants, in order that internecine broils 
might weaken and perplex the political power of 
Charles V. But they were not disposed to tolerate 
the new opinions in France, lest their ascendency 
should despoil them of their revenues, as it had 
already despoiled the Germanic bishops. It was 
the dread of pecuniary loss, rather than care for 
religious unity, that urged these worldly and fop- 
pish prelates, lapped in luxury, bloated with pride, 
and swollen with license, to desert for an instant 

* Davilla, Hist, des Guerres Civiles de la France, p. 20, folio 
edition. f Duncan, Beligious Wars of France, Introduc. 



EESUEEECTION OF EEFOEM. 141 



the arms of their mistresses, to button-hole the 
king, and insist upon the adoption of sanguinary 
measures for the extirpation of heresy; it was this 
which impelled them to admonish Francis that the 
maintenance of the old faith in its integrity would 
be a full atonement for all the sins he had commit- 
ted or might commit — w^ould be a passport to par- 
adise. 

The effects of this policy of the courtier prelates 
were soon experienced. On the 9th of June, 1523, 
a severe edict against the heretics was published.* 
Then, in the autumn of the middle ages, the reapers 
of intolerant Rome went out into the field to glean 
once more a bloody harvest. 

The first step of the victorious priests, under the 
king's decree, was to disperse an influential and 
numerous congregation of reformers at Meaux.f 
This city was in the episcopal see of William Bri- 
5onnet, an earnest and devout churchman, who had 
studied the canons of the Scripture as well as the 
canons of the church, and who, animated by the 
words of Luther, had himself ascended the pulpit, 
proclaimed the doctrine of salvation by faith, and 
conducted himself as a bishop should, by striving 
to instruct his flock, by identifying his interests 
with theirs, instead of neglecting them to immerse 
himself, as most of his order did, in the unhallowed 
dissipations of the gayest capital in Christendom. $ 



0 Maimbourg, Hist, du Calyinisine, liv. 1. Browning. Hist. 
Huguenots, p. 21. f Davilla. 

X Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, pp. 133, 13-i. 



142 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



But the platforms of the Sorbonne echoed with 
denunciation. The " novelties " of Brigonnet were 
placed under the ban, as the deviations of TYick- 
liffe, of Huss, of Jerome, of Luther, had already 
been, and the good bishop's instructive eloquence 
died away in a stifled groan.* 

Lefevre of Estaples was the friend and mentor 
of Brigonnet. This patriarch of the Reformation 
had ventured to study the original records of the 
faith, while Europe yet shivered in the chilly gloom 
of superstition. He drew from the Pauline epistles 
certain maxims concerning justification and faith, 
which a little later formed the soul of the reformed 
theology ; and this indefatigable student, at the 
advanced age of eighty, preserving his vivacity and 
intellectual strength untouched by time, commenced 
a translation of the Bible, which forms the basis of 
the French version of the Scriptures.f 

For a time Francis I. wavered in his determina- 
tion. The fickle monarch, influenced by Erasmus, 
then the learned idol of lettered Europe, befriended 
Lefevre, and even established a college for the cul- 
tivation of the ancient languages, in opposition to 
the Sorbonne.J The deep religious spirit of the 
age touched for a moment the callous, selfish heart 
of the knight-errant king. With his mother and 
sister he frequently read the Scriptures, and they 
were heard to remark that the divine truth — which 
seemed to them to be there — ou^ht not to be de- 

o 

«- Ranke, Civil Wars, etc., p. 133, 134. 

t Ibid., pp. 132, 133. t Ibid., 137. 



EESUERECTIOX OF REFOR1T. 143 



noiainatecl heresy. Luther was frequently lauded 
at the court, while the Sorbonne sullenly lamented 
that the persecution of the followers of the heretic 
and the destruction of his writings, despite the 
king's decree of the 9th of June, met with obstruc- 
tions from the Louvre. 

But Francis remained for a little under the 
influence of his sister and the scholars of the em- 
pire. He even spoke of nullifying his edict, and 
was heard to regret the dispersion of the Meaux 
assembly;* affirming at the same time that he saw 
no reason why Roussel and Aranda — two cele- 
brated orators of the Reformation — should not 
preach at the court. t 

The shuttlecock king soon had a relapse. "When 
Erasmus nudged his elbow, he was tolerant ; when 
the prelates pointed to the rising tide of the reform, 
and bade him beware lest it swamp his throne, he 
grew alarmed. 

The first symptom of the change was an auto 
dafe. 

In the initial days of the Reformation, Louis de 
Berquin, one of the earliest opponents of the Sor- 
bonne, an eminent scholar, an enthusiastic Chris- 
tian, enjoyed the special favor of Francis, who, like 
all pedants, loved to surround himself with literati, 
with artists, with sculptors, and who petted Leo- 
nardo da Vinci with one hand, while he patted 
French scholarship upon the shoulder with the 
other. 

® Dayilla. f Banke, Civil Wars, etc., p. 136. 



144 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Berquin' s boldness soon impelled liim to cross 
swords with the Sorbonne. The consequence was, 
that while his royal master, captured by Charles V. 
at Pavia, languished in a Spanish prison, he lay in 
the dungeons of the Inquisition. Francis, on his 
return to France, liberated the incarcerated scholar, 
who was no sooner out however, than, making it a 
point of honor not to retire before his persecutors, 
he recommenced the combat, undertaking to con- 
vict Becla, the syndic of the Sorbonne, of himself 
holding heretical opinions.* 

Berquin relied upon the monarch's support. 
But meantime Francis, who had hurled himself 
upon Italy like an avalanche, was once more foiled 
by the calm tactics of the wily emperor, and re- 
turned into his kingdom with shattered health, a 
decimated army, and weakened authority ; for, as 
Erasmus remarked in a warning to Berquin, the 
king's defeat had weakened his domestic power. 

The Sorbonne saw the opportunit}', seized it, 
actually secured the consent of the king to their 
programme of procedure, and taking Berquin, in 
1529, publicly burned him on the Place de Greve. 
The Parisian populace, over whom the preachers 
of the Sorbonne exercised unlimited influence, are 
said to have shown less sympathy for this hapless 
victim than they ordinarily exhibited for the most 
abandoned criminals.f 

* Erasmus ad Carolurn Ulenhonum ; cal. Jul., 1529. 

f Ibid. "Sic omuium animos in ilium excitarunt qui 

nihil non possunt apud simplices et imperitos." Benoit, Hist, de 
l'Edit de Nantes, vol. 1, p. 8. 



I 

RESURRECTION OF REFORM. 145 

Francis L never afterwards paused. The demon 
of persecution took full possession of him. To the 
end of his life he continued to slaughter his sub- 
jects with an indiscriminate malignity which bor- 
dered on frenzy. 

To this chapter of persecution, the Jesuit Fleury 
refers with an unfeeling jeer : " From time to time 
some false prophet appeared upon the scene, to 
publish his fanaticism or to sound the disposition 
of the court. But repression was prompt : it cost 
dear to one Berquin of Arras, to Jean Leclerc, a 
wool-carder of Meaux, and to Jaques Parane, a cloth- 
ier of Boulogne. They were all burned alive, and 
a dread of the fire silenced the spirit of several ora- 
cles. History doubtless mentions these despicable 
names to perpetuate the reproach of their birth or 
their impiety, rather than to celebrate these vile 
founders of the Calvinistic church."* 

Bail on, proud mocker, at God's lowly poor, 
But these despised and scattered members of a 
torn body were made one again in Jesus Christ; 
while from their ashes they spoke with grander, 
more persuasive eloquence than that with which 
antique art endowed him who 

''Fulniined over Greece 
To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne. " 

* Hist, du Cardinal de Tournon, par ie P. Charles Fleury, de 
la Compagnie de Jesus, p. 215 ; Paris, 1728. This violent writer 
must not be confounded ^Yith Claude Fleury, author of the Hist, 
Eccles. 



Huguenots, 



146 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE COURT OF FRANCIS I. 

The opening phases of the Reformation bear 
the impress of two illustrious women. 

The first of these was Renee, duchess of Fer- 
rara, and daughter of Louis XII. This lady had 
been early won to adopt the resurrected tenets of 
the gospel. Under the beautiful sky of fatal Italy 
she listened to the hurried words of the flitting 
reformers who ventured to mutter their opinions in 
an undertone even beneath the very throne of Leo 
X. The situation of her husband's estates in the 
near vicinity of Rome, made him fearful of exciting 
either the temporal or spiritual wrath of the pon- 
tiff, lest that arbiter both of this world and the next 
should pounce upon him and despoil him of his 
heritage. 

Therefore Renee concealed her sentiments dur- 
ing the duke of Ferrara's life. But a little later, 
become a widow, she quitted the stifling atmosphere 
of Italy, and taking possession of the castle of Mon- 
targis, an hour's ride from Paris, openly avowed 
her adherence to the reformed theology, and gave 
the warmest of welcomes to the evangelical preach- 
ers, besides offering to the persecuted the safest of 
asylums.* 

* Brantome, vol. 1, page 328. Gibbon, Antiquities of the 



COURT OF FRANCIS I. 



147 



The other of these ladies was Margaret cle Va- - 
lois, queen of Navarre, the daughter, the sister, the 
wife, the mother of kings, the greatest woman of 
her age. 

Margaret, like Eenee, had given her cordial 
assent to the teachings of the " evangelicals,"* as 
the French reformers were sometimes called. 

The sister of Francis I. lived much at the court, 
figured in state ceremonies and in the councils at 
the Louvre, at St. Germaine, at Fontainebleau; yet 
she preserved her sweet simplicity, her religious 
zeal, her calm faith, amid the wicked fascinations 
of her brother's court, giving her heart to the three 
things she loved best — the king, France, and the 
gospel of her Christ. f 

Margaret went wrapped in the respectful ven- 
eration of Europe. The scholars of Christendom 
were especially proud of one who had devoted her 
May of life to literature and divinity, who wrote and 
spoke with equal grace and eloquence, who was 
familiar with Latin, with Greek, with Hebrew ;J 
they enthroned her as their princess, they hailed 
her as their Maecenas. 

She had also been early initiated into poli- 
tics. The diplomats counted her one of the best 
heads in Europe; and Dandolo, the Venetian am- 

House of Brunswick. Browning, History of the Huguenots, 
p. 20. 

s D'Aubigne', History of the Reformation in the time of Cal- 
• vin, vol. 1, book 2, passim f Ibid., p. 326. 

t Ibid. • 



148 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



bassador, affirmed lier to be the ablest politician in 

France.* 

Margaret is said to have been beautiful and 
stately in her person ;t and thus accomplished, 
influential, politic, and courageous in her Christian 
belief, she walked through the kingdom binding up 
the wounds of the hunted dissenters, succoring the 
needy, befriending the outlawed professors of the 
hated truth, earning the benediction of the sixth 
beatitude : " Blessed are the pure in heart ; for they 
shall see God."J 

i il A perfect woman, nobly planned 
To warn, to comfort, and command ; 
And yet a spirit pure and bright, * 
With, something of an angel's light. "§ 

After Francis had decided to fight heresy under 
the banners of the Sorbonne, Brantome relates that 
the constable, Anne of Montmorenci, when con- 
versing with him upon the most effectual mode of 
extirpating heresy, did not scruple to say that " his 
majesty should begin with his court and his own 
relations," naming Margaret as one of the most 
dangerous of the heretics. Francis replied, " Nay, 
speak no more of her ; she loves me too well not to 
believe what I believe,"|| with which equivocating 
phrase he turned off his overzealous counsellor. 

* Questa credo sii la piu sana, non dico delle donne de Franza 
ma forse anche delli huomini, etc. Dandolo, 1542. 

f Brantome, Vie de Margaret. % St. Matthew 5 : 8. 

§ Wordsworth, Lines on his Wife. 
|| Brantome, Vie de Margaret. 



COUET OF FRANCIS I. 



149 



Margaret has been finely called the mother of 
French reform. She did indeed by her life, by her 
precepts, by her station, by her enthusiasm, attract 
many to the gospel. Her influence in the upper 
tiers of society was especially marked. But there 
is always clanger when princes turn missionaries. 
When the Bible spoke through the eloquent lips of 
the most beautiful woman of the day, there were 
some who yielded an apparent assent, not because 
they were penetrated by the truth, but because 
they were fascinated by the bewitching speaker ; 
for when Margaret exhorted, who so stout as not 
to bow his head, and at least simulate conviction? 
But such Christianity was of course but superficial 
at the best; and when danger lowered, these fair- 
weather disciples skulked away. Others yielded an 
intellectual assent to the truths of Protestantism, 
but preserved the heart icy and untouched — a sad 
error, decomposing to the religious life of a church, 
destructive of the existence of nationalities. 

Thus from one cause or another it chanced that 
there were many enlightened consciences in the 
upper ranks of French society, but there were few 
consciences which were smitten by the word of God. 
This weakened even the apparent strength of the 
Reformation in Latin Europe. For as Merle D'Au- 
bigne has well said, " Conscience is the palladium of 
Protestantism, far more than the statue of Pallas 
was the pledge of the preservation of Troy in the 
heroic fable of the Odyssy." 

When, a little later, Margaret, who had been 



150 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



already wed to the duke of Alengon — a prince of the 
blood, but a man without courage, amiability, or 
understanding, chief cause of the disaster at Pavia, 
from which field he had fled in disgrace, and even- 
tually died of shame — married again Henry d'Al- 
oret, king of Navarre, the companion in arms of 
Francis, a prince brave, gay, accomplished, hand- 
some, witty, learned, and eloquent, the young queen 
wrote religious toleration upon the first line of the 
first page of her code of laws, and opened an asy- 
lum for the persecuted "evangelicals," which even 
kings long hesitated to violate.* 

Meantime the persecution continued with in- 
creased severity. The reform saw her children 
around her, some already dead, some in chains, all 
threatened with a fatal blow. Martyrdom followed 
martyrdom. Such havoc was made among the 
" evangelicals," that an annual procession was in- 
stituted to render thanks to the Almighty that they 
had been permitted to spill so much heretical 
blood. t When Dymond Leroy, with five others, 
suffered in 1528, Francis went personally to witness 
the execution, and stood bareheaded while the fires 
were kindled. When the /efe was over, the monarch 
marched away from the scene at the head of a pro- 
cession of monks and priests/j: 

Of course the encouragement thus given by the 
king's personal attendance at an auto da fe could 



e Brantome, Vie de Margaret. Crespin, Martyrologue. 

f Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 21. 

X Maimbourg, Hist, de Calvanisme, liv. 1. 



COURT OF FRANCIS I. 



151 



not but be productive of increased enthusiasm in 
persecution. France bled from every pore. To 
record these sufferings would convert these pages 
into a rnartyrology. 

Francois, archbishop of Lyons and cardinal of 
Tournon, was the chief instigator of these massa- 
cres. This haughty and intolerant prelate was the 
representative of an ancient family. He had en- 
tered the church at an early age. and had risen 
rapidly through the various ecclesiastical grades — 
monk, abbe, bishop, archbishop — until, in 1530, in 
his forty-second year, he received the red hat of a 
cardinal.* 

Tournon was celebrated as a negotiator and 
as a statesman, but it is as a persecutor that he 
achieved his widest fame.f To use his panegyrist's 
expression, " He made it as dangerous to converse 
in secret as to discuss in public. Nothing escaped 
this great man, who seemed to multiply himself in 
order to discover artifice or punish temerity; so 
that foreign princes were accustomed to say that 
he alone was equal to an inquisition in Prance."} 

The overweening pride and bigotry of this in- 
flated prelate had been sharply curbed by Marga- 
ret while she resided at the court. But upon her 
departure for her kingdom of Navarre, the emanci- 
pated cardinal became the confidant and adviser of 
the king. He was thus enabled to give loose rein 
to his atrocities. 



% Hist, du Cardinal de Tournon. par Charles Fleury. 

f Fleury, ut antea. J Ibid, p. 214. 



152 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Under tile iron hand of Tournon, the vacillating 
monarch was kept sternly immovable in the policy 
of blood. On one occasion when Margaret had 
persuaded her brother to listen to a sermon by one 
of her favorite preachers, Lecoq, curate of St. Eu- 
stache, who ventured " to preach the doctrines of 
Zwingle," as we are assured by Maimbourg, "though 
the king could not at first discern the venom con- 
cealed under his fine phrases," the cardinal com- 
pelled Lecoq publicly to retract, and imposed a 
penance on Francis for listening to his sermon.* 

At another time the queen of Navarre so highly 
extolled the piety and genius of Melancthon, that 
Francis consented to invite him to a conference 
with the French divines upon the best means of 
restoring harmony to the divided church. 

The clergy were in consternation. The pros- 
pect of contending with the learned and eloquent 
St. John of the Reformation alarmed them as 
greatly as it elated the evangelicals. Francis had 
already dispatched the invitation ; but Tournon 
undertook even at the last moment to prevent the 
visit. His scheme for changing the king's opinion 
is described by Maimbourg as worthy of immor- 
tality. 

He entered the royal apartment apparently ab- 
sorbed in the pages of a book which he held in his 
hand. Francis, noticing his abstraction, inquired 
the name of the volume which interested him so 
deeply. The prelate paused in his measured walk, 

* Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, liv. 1, p. 26. 



COUET OF FKANCIS I. 



153 



looked up with a well-affected start, and replied, 
" Sire, it is a work by St. Irenseus." He then in- 
stantly directed the monarch's attention to a pas- 
sage where Xrenseus had given full scope to his 
feelings against heretics, showing that the apostles 
would not even frequent any public place where 
they were admitted. The wily cardinal then ex- 
pressed his grief that, with such examples before 
him, the eldest son of the church should have sent 
for a heresiarch who was the most subtle and cel- 
ebrated of Luther's disciples. Francis, surprised 
and shocked, instantly sent to revoke his invitation, 
protested by all the saints in the calendar that he 
would never renounce his hereditary faith, and, to 
give emphasis to the declaration, issued orders for 
the persecution of the heretics with additional vigor. 
" This sudden and generous resolution," moralizes 
the Jesuit who chronicles the episode, " fell like a 
thunderbolt upon the Protestants, who felt secure 
from such a reverse under the protection of the 
queen of Navarre."* 

The prospects of reform grew gloomier every 
day. The provinces were abandoned to the cru- 
elty of the prelates. The capital was governed 
by the court. The court was controlled by two 
harlots. 

It was during the reign of Francis I. that women ^ 
acquired that ascendency at court which enabled 
them, under the two or three succeeding sovereigns, 
to nominate and to depose ministers, marshals, and 

* Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, liv. 1, p. 29. 
7* 



154 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



judges — to dictate the policy of France. Francis, 
fond of gallantry and intrigue, thought that the 
charms of the softer sex would smooth the rough 
manners of his courtiers into becoming gentleness. 
From that idea sprang the new regime. The age of 
iron was succeeded by the age of debauchery. La- 
dies flocked to the court, each anxious to secure 
credit and influence, and careless of the means by 
which that object was gained. Chastity soon ceased 
to be a virtue — it became prudery ; female honor 
was bartered for the privilege of bestowing pen- 
sions, or for the eclat of station. The authority of 
the ministers was merely nominal; the wives and 
daughters of the nobles swayed the sceptre, each 
one retaining it so long as her beauty, talents, and 
intrigues enabled her to command an ascendency.* 

Hence originated the excessive luxury, the su- 
per-refinement, the loose morality of the higher 
circles of French society. Men of letters, wits, 
poets, flitted through the galleries of the Louvre, 
each one attracted thither by avarice, by pleasure, 
by ambition, or by all. 

The servility of these mocking letters increased 
the corruption of the age. The wits and poets who 
thronged the halls of the palace lowered the moral 
tone of the court circles by their nauseating flat- 
teries, by their unchaste songs, by their profane 
epigrams. 

They soon made themselves of use to the ladies 
by chanting hymns to the beauty of some favorite, 

0 Miss Pardoe, Court of Francis I. 



COUKT OF FKANCIS I. 



155 



and by satirizing her rivals. Tliey held their tal- 
ents to be a marketable commodity, to be knocked 
down to the highest bidder. Their verses conferred 
taste and genius upon their patrons, though nature 
might have denied them common-sense. 

This mixture of lewd women, atheistic bishops, 
servile wits, and scheming courtiers, formed what 
was deemed a brilliant and gallant court. 

The coui tiers were divided into two rival fac- 
tions, each of which obeyed one or the other of 
two beautiful but abandoned women, the Duchess 
d'Estampes, mistress of Francis I., and the famous 
Diana of Poitiers, mistress of the king's eldest son 
Henry, the dauphin.* 

Atheism might be bred by such an atmosphere ; 
bigotry might be made to grow in such a soil; per- 
secution might thrive in such ground ; but the aus- 
tere precepts of the Reformation were too rare an 
exotic to be fostered there. The self-denial, the 
pure morality, the indifference to unlawful worldly 
pleasure, which characterized the " evangelicals," 
awoke no responsive chord in the breast of a court 
surrendered to dissolute levities. Nay, the cour- 
tiers soon came to hate their reproving Nathan. 
"We are weary," pouted Diana of Poitiers, "of the 
declamation of the reformed preachers against the 
vices of the court and of the church. "t 

And so the guilty court spun out its wild dance, 
unmindful, as it quaffed its brimming bowl, as it 

° Duncan, Religions Wars in France, pp. 4, 5. 
f Miss Pardoe, Court of Francis I. 



156 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



reeled and joked and laughed, of the earthquake 
which growled beneath its feet. 

But the orgies at the capital did not stay the 
devastating tread of persecution. The inquisitors 
walked across France, from the English channel to 
the Pyrenees, hunting heretics and kindling autos 
dafe, until, to borrow the striking expression of a 
writer who has painted that epoch for the instruc- 
tion of shuddering Christendom, "France scented 
burning bodies in every breeze."* 

* Crespin, Martyrologue, folio, p. 138. 



APOSTLES OF THE FAITH. 



157 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE APOSTLES OF THE FAITH. 

Eefekence has been already made to several of 
the worthies who aided in the resurrection of the 
gospel in France — to Benee of Ferrara, to the beau- 
tiful Margaret of Navarre, to Lefevre, to that Ber- 
quin who suffered in the Place de Greve, and who, 
with his Testament in hand, had traversed the 
neighborhood of Abbeville, the banks of the Somme, 
the towns, manors, and fields of Artois and Picardy, 
filling them with love for the word of God. 

But there were other apostles of the faith be- 
sides these. 

A nobleman of the German city of Strasburg, 
Count Sigismund of Haute-Flamme, a friend and 
ally of queen Margaret, who called him her good 
cousin, had been touched by Luther's heroism and 
the preaching of ZelL His conscience once aroused, 
he endeavored to live according to the will of God. 
Sigismund was not one of those nobles, rather nu- 
merous then, who spoke in secret of the Saviour, 
but before the world seemed not to know him. The 
reformers all bore loving testimony to his frankness 
and courage.* 

Although a dignitary of the church, and dean of 

* "Videnras quosdam tui ordinis^ qui abscondite Christo ad- 
herent, publice autem negant." Lambert to Hohenlohe. 



158 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



a celebrated theological chapter, the count labored 
to spread the evangelical truth around him; and 
one day, while busied in revolving the best means 
of doing so, he conceived a grand idea. 

Finding himself placed between Germany and 
France, and himself speaking fluently the languages 
of both, he resolved to undertake the task of leav- 
ening France with the precepts of Christ. 

He instantly commenced his self-imposed labor. 
As soon as he received any new work from Luther, 
he had it translated into French and forwarded to 
Margaret.* 

He did more. Esteeming the queen of Navarre 
to be the door through which the principles of the 
Reformation were to enter France, he wrote Luther, 
urging him to pen a letter to Margaret, or to com- 
pose some pamphlet calculated to encourage her in 
her zealous labors.t 

Count Sigismund's labors with the priests and 
nobles who surrounded him w 7 ere not crowned with 
success. Some few gentlemen indeed spoke brave 
words, but they were only lip deep. But the monks 
looked at him with genuine amazement. Their 
dreams were disturbed, their licentiousness was 
reproached, the clolce far niente of their lives was to 
be broken up. " Ah ha ! the Reformation then 
means that we must change our easy life, give up 
our naps, quit our cloisters, su'rrender our illicit 
amours;" 'twas thus they reasoned. The keen eye 

* D'Aubigne, Hist. Kef. in the time of Calvin, vol. 1, p. 340. 
t Ibid. 



APOSTLES OF THE FAITH. 159 



of Lambert of Avignon, one of the ablest of the 
reformers, detected this commotion in the monkish 
dove-cotes, and turning to the count, he said with 
a smile, " You will not succeed here ; these folks 
are afraid of damaging their wallets, their kitchens, 
their stables, and their bellies."* 

Sigismund succeeded better with Margaret. 
Soon after the defeat at Pavia, he wrote her a sym- 
pathetic letter; and again, when her sisterly affec- 
tion drove her to seek Francis, when he languished 
in his Spanish prison, Margaret was strengthened 
and comforted by her good cousin s kind words. t 

Pierre Toussaint, prebendary of Metz, Roussel, 
one of queen Margaret's favorite preachers, and 
Farel. were also active servants in the vinevard 
during these initial years. They all endured great 
sufferings for the sake of that gospel which they 
loved. Still, nothing could shake their faith. They 
continued to tune their voices into harmony with 
the celestial chorus. 

On one occasion, when Toussaint chanced to 
pass through the diocese of the abbot of St. An- 
toine, that violent and merciless priest seized the 
young evangelist, and despite his candor, sweet- 
ness, and the broken health under which he rested, 
plunged his fragile victim into a frightful dungeon 
full of stagnant water and other filth. J Toussaint 
« D'Anbigne', p. 340. 

f Letters de la Heine de [Navarre, 1, p. 211. Boston city Li- 
brary. 

X "In carcere pleno aqua et sordibus." Herzog (Eeolampade, 
Pieces Justine atives. 



160 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



could hardly stand erect in this hideous den. With 
his back against the wall, and his feet on the only 
spot which the water did not reach, stifled by the 
poisonous vapors emitted around him, the young 
preacher recalled the cheerful house of his uncle 
the dean of Metz, and the magnificent palace of the 
cardinal of Lorraine, where he had been so kindly 
received ere he became a heretic. What a contrast ! 
His health declined, his mind sank, his tottering 
limbs could scarcely support him.* 

Meantime poor Toussaint's friends had ac- 
quainted Margaret with his condition, and the 
indignant queen hastened by post to Paris, threw 
herself at the feet of her brother, and finally res- 
cued this lamb from the fangs of the wild beast. 

When the young evangelist came out of this 
fearful den, he was thin, weak, and pale as a faded 
flower. He stood bewildered. No one offered to 
receive this heretic who had just cheated the scaf- 
fold. But at length he went boldly to Paris, sought 
Margaret, and found an asylum with her.f 

Toussaint found the young queen surrounded 
by distinguished personages, all ea<ger to present 
their homage. " Side by side with nobles and am- 
bassadors dressed in the most costly garments, 
and soldiers with their glittering arms, were cardi- 
nals robed in scarlet and ermine, bishops with their 
satin copes, ecclesiastics of every order with long 
gowns and tonsured heads.";): These, desirous of 

* D'Aubigne, p. 359. f Ibid., p. 364. 

X Toussanus (Ecolampadio. Quoted in D'Aubig., vol. 1, p. 366. 



APOSTLES OF THE FAITH. 



161 



enlisting the influence of Margaret in their favor, 
spoke to her of the gospel and of reform. Toussaint, 
a stranger to the chicaneries of politics, listened 
with profound astonishment to this strange court 
language. At the outset he was deceived, and took 
the religious prattle of this troop of flatterers for 
sound piety. It was not long, however, before his 
eyes were opened. When he saw the drift of their 
artful harangues, he burned to expose them. 

Learning that Lefevre and Eoussel had arrived 
in Paris from Blois, Toussaint, full of respect for 
them, hastened to their apartments, and with im- 
petuous eloquence urged them to assist him in 
unmasking the hypocrites, and in boldly preaching 
the whole gospel in the midst of the giddy court. 

"Patience, Toussaint," replied the two scholars, 
both timid by nature, and whom the debilitating 
air of the court had perhaps still further weakened; 
"patience ; don't spoil every thing; the time is not 
yet corae."* Then Toussaint, ardent, generous, 
upright, burst into tears. "Yes," he said, "be wise 
after your fashion ; wait, put off, dissemble : you 
will acknowledge however at last that it is impossi- 
ble to preach the gospel without bearing the cross. 
The banner of divine mercy is now raised ; the gate 
of the kingdom of heaven stands wide open. God 
calls us. He does not mean us to receive his sum- 
mons with supineness. We must hasten, lest the 
opportunity should escape us, and the door be 
closecl."t 

° Toussanus (Ecolarapadio. t Ibid-, 



162 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



But the timid scholars could not be moved. 
Then he wrote (Ecolampadius, " Roussel is weak ; 
Lefevre lacks courage ; God strengthen and sup- 
port them." 

For himself, he was stifled at the court ; the air 
was closer to him than in the den of the abbot of 
St. Antoine. Disgusted by the lewd revels of the 
capital, he resolved to quit it. "Farewell to the 
court," said he ; " it is the most dangerous and 
seductive of harlots."* 

Then the young Metzer, putting behind his back 
certain "magnificent offers" which had been made 
to him if he would stay and connect himself with the 
mystical and timidly progressive wing of the Roman 
church, which Bri£onn6t then represented, quitted 
the kingdom. But foreseeing that a terrible strug- 
gle was approaching, he left with a prayer that 
God would enable France to show herself worthy 
of the Keformation.t 

William Farel, another of those men upon whom 
God set the seal of his apostleship, was one whose 
simple, serious, earnest tones carry away the masses. 
"His voice of thunder made his hearers tremble. 
The strength of his convictions created faith in 
their souls ; the fervor of his prayers raised them 
to heaven. When they listened to him, 'they felt.' 
as Calvin once said, 6 not merely a few light pricks 
and stings, but were wounded to the heart, pierced 
with the truth ; hypocrisy was dragged from those 

* ' Aula, meretrix periculosissima. " Touss. (Ecolampadio. 
t Neufchatel MS., cited by D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 368. 



APOSTLES OF THE FAITH. 163 



wonderful and more than tortuous hiding-places 
which lie deep in the heart of man.' 

" He pulled down and built up with equal en- 
ergy. Even his life, an apostleship full of self-sac- 
rifice and danger and triumph, was as effectual as 
his sermons. He was not only a minister, he was a 
bishop. He was able to discern the young men 
best fitted to wield the weapons of the gospel, and 
to direct them in the great war of the age; for Farel 
never attacked a place, however difficult of access, 
which he did not take."" 

Farel' s native place was Gap, a little village in 
Dauphiny.f Desirous of preaching the gospel to 
his relatives there, on one occasion he took up his 
quarters in a corn-mill hard by the gates of the 
hamlet, where he explained a French Bible to the 
villagers who crowded about him. 

Ere long he ventured to preach in the very heart 
of Gap ; "desecrating," as the Capuchins phrased 
it, " a chapel dedicated to St. Colombe." " The 
magistrate forbade his preaching, and the parlia- 
ment of Grenoble desired to have him burned;" so 
runs the record of the monks. 

Farel replied by a formal refusal of obedience ; 
upon which Benedict Olier, a zealous papist, and 
vice-bailiff, escorted by a posse comitatus, marched 
to St. Colombe. The doors were shut, and double- 
barred. The officers knocked. All were silent. 

* D'Aubigne, vol. 1, pp. 374, 375. 

f Ckarronnet, Les Gnerres de la Religion dans les Hautes Alpes, 
Gap, 1861, p. 17. 



164 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



They broke in. A large audience were assembled, 
but not a head was turned ; all were drinking in 
greedily the eloquent words of the dauntless preach- 
er. The officers went to the pulpit, seized Fare!, 
and " with the crime in his hand," as the forcible 
expression of the Capuchins put it, referring to the 
Bible which he held, he was led through the crowd 
and imprisoned. 

But the followers of the new doctrine were al- 
ready to be found in every class — in the workman's 
garret, in the tradesman's shop, in the fortified cha- 
teau of the noble, and sometimes even in the bish- 
op's palace. During the night the reformers ral- 
lied, and either by force or stratagem took the 
brave old man from prison, hurried him to the 
ramparts, let him down into the plain in a basket, 
and " accomplices " who awaited him sped with him 
to a place of safety.* 

Although the larger part of Farel's apostleship 
was spent in foreign countries, for he was an exile 
from his dear France, yet he exercised a very marked 
influence upon the formation of the Gallican church. t 

Under the distant inspiration of Luther's elo- 
quence, under the zealous labors of Toussaint, Si- 
gismond, Farel, and Margaret, supported by an ac- 
tive host of less distinguished representatives, the 
reform continued to spread, despite Tournon's exer- 
tions]: and the denunciations of the Sorbonne. But 

* Charronnet, ut antea. f Bossuet, Hist, des Variations. 
J " Notwithstanding Tournon's ubiquity, the heresy spread 
rapidly." Fleury, Hist, du Cardinal de Tournon. 



APOSTLES OF THE FAITH. 



165 



the dissenters were scattered, often ill-informed on 
vital points of faith, and lacked uniformity of effort 
and belief. Who shall organize the Reformation? 
Who shall mould this heterogeneous mass of dis- 
sent into a grand unit? This loose-jointed body 
of reform, whose plastic hand shall reshape it into 
strength and symmetry ? Such were the questions 
which Farel, GEcolampadius, Sigismond, and the 
other chiefs of Latin reform began to put to each 
other with anxious emphasis. 

Then the brain of French Protestantism began 
its work : John Calvin appeared. 



168 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

JOHN CALVIN. 

John Calyin was born on the 10th of July, 1509, 
at Noyon, in Picardy,* which was also Lefevre's na- 
tive province.t He was emphatically a man of the 
people. His family was not one of marked impor- 
tance. His grandfather was a cooper at Pont 
1'Eveque ; his father was secretary to a bishop, and 
in the days of his greatest prosperity, apprenticed 
his brother Antony Calvin to a bookbinder. Sim- 
ple, frugal, poor, intelligent, such were John Cal- 
vin's immediate progenitors. 

His father valued letters, and he determined 
that his son should be liberally educated. The 
boy w r as therefore sent in his fifteenth year to the 
college of La Marche, at Paris. 

There, pale, diffident to a painful degree, but 
with a look of striking intelligence, the bashful and 
studious boy of Noyon speedily shot to the head of 
his class. It was at the university that the famous 
friendship between Calvin and Mathurin Cordier 
began. Cordier, in 1523, when Calvin came to town, 
was a professor at La Marche. One of those men 

* Beza, Life of Calvin. 

f Kanke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, p. 147. 



JOHN CALVIN. 



167 



of ancient mould, who prefer the public good to 
their own advancement, he had neglected a brilliant 
career which had opened its alluring arms to wel- 
come him, and devoted himself to the instruction of 
children.* The professor was instantly attracted 
towards his singular pupil. Calvin's purity, his 
quickness, his thoroughness, his genius captivated 
him, and he lavished his instructions upon the 
thoughtful boy with unstinted hand. He taught 
him Latin and Greek and Hebrew. He initiated 
him into the temple of mediaeval culture. He im- 
parted to him a certain knowledge of antiquity and 
of ancient chivalry. Indeed he inspired his pupil 
with his own ardor, and walked with him, arm in 
arm, in the "true path" of science. 

In after years, when both master and scholar 
had been driven from France, and had taken up 
their abode in that little city at the foot of the 
Swiss Alps, whose mouth was to speak great things;\ 
Calvin, then expanded into the most celebrated doc- 
tor in Europe, loved to recall these days of his stu- 
dent life, and publicly announcing his indebtedness 
to Cordier, he said, " Oh, Master Mathurin, Oh man 
gifted with learning and great fear of God, when 
my father sent me to Paris, while still a child and 
possessing only a few rudiments of the Latin lan- 
guage, it was God's will that I should have you for 
my teacher, in order that I might be directed in the 
true path and right mode of learning; and having 
first commenced the course of study under your 
* D'Anbigne, vol. 1, p. 382. \ Daniel 7:8. 



163 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



guidance, I have advanced so far that I can now in 
some degree profit the church of God."* 

But in those days both Cordier and Calvin were 
strangers to the evangelical doctrine, and devoutly 
followed the papal ritual. 

" Calvin," says one of his biographers and dis- 
ciples, "was at first a strict observer of the prac- 
tices of the church. He never missed a fast, a re- 
treat, a mass, or a procession. "t " It is a long time 
since -Sorbonne or Montaigne had so pious a semi- 
narist," w r as the common expression. 

Thus Calvin, like Luther, while in the papal 
church, belonged to its strictest sect. " The austere 
exercises of a devotee's life were the schoolmaster 
that brought these men to Christ." 

His application surprised his tutors. Absorbed 
in his books, he often forgot the hours for his meals, 
and even for sleep. J The people who resided in the 
neighborhood were accustomed to point out to each 
other as they returned home late at night, a tiny, 
solitary gleam, a window lit up till the starry tapers 
of the sky were quenched in the grey of the morn- 
ing. There sat John Calvin, elaborating in his 
august reveries thoughts which, a little later were 
to convulse the universe. 

Calvin's father, familiar with his son's genius, 
had marked out for him a brilliant ecclesiastical 
career: an abbot's mitre, a bishop's cope, the red 

* A Mathurin Cordier, Dedicace du Commentaire de la Ire Ep. 
aux Thess., par Calvin. 

f Beza, Vita Calvini. t D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 386. 



JOHN CALTIX. 



163 



hat and the scarlet gown of a cardinal glittered be- 
fore his eyes. Therefore when he heard from time 
to time of young Calvin's rapid advancement in 
grammar, in philosophy, in scholastic theology, he 
would smooth his beard and say, " Ah ha ! we shall 
see brave things yet." 

In 1527, two years after leaving home, he went 
back to Xoyon at vacation time, and i: although he 
had not yet taten orders, he delivered several ser- 
mons before the people."* At eighteen he had a 
parish, t 

Then it was that a new light, which had but lit- 
tle resemblance to the false radiance of scholasti- 
cism, began to shine around him. At that time 
there was a breath of the gospel in the murky air, 
and the reviving breeze reached the scholar within 
the walls of his college, the priest in the recesses of 
his convent ; no one was protected from its influ- 
ence. Calvin heard people talk about the Bible, 
Luther, Lefevre, Melancthon, Farel, and of what 
was passing in Germany. 

"When the rays of the sun rise in the Alps, it is 
the highest peaks that catch them first. 'In the 
sunrise of the Reformation, the most eminent minds 
were first enlightened. In the colleges there were 
sharp and frequent altercations. Calvin was at first 
among the most inflexible opponents of the evan- 
gelical doctrine ; but soon he was won to study. 
Thoroughness was his mania. With him, as with 
so many others, examination meant emancipation. 

$ Beza.. Life of Calvin. f Ibid. 

Huguenots. $ 



170 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



And at length, after a terrible struggle, lie experi- 
enced that "joy and peace in believing" which had 
solaced Luther's torn soul in the Erfurth cloister. 
His conversion was hastened by witnessing several 
martyrdoms.* He opened his Bible. Everywhere 
he found Christ. Instantly the scales fell from his 
eyes. " Oh Father," he cried, "His sacrifice has 
appeased thy wrath : his blood has washed away 
my impurities ; his cross has borne my curse ; his 
death has atoned for me. We had devised for our- 
selves many useless follies, but thou hast placed thy 
word before me like a torch, and thou hast touched 
my heart, in order that I may hold in abomination 
all other merits save those of Jesus."f 

Calvin then, at nineteen, broke with Rome, and 
quitting Paris repaired to Orleans, and later to 
Bourges, where he "wonderfully advanced the king- 
dom of God."t 

After a life of vicissitudes, extending from the 
year 1527 until 1535, frequently smitten by the 
bolts of excommunication, a fugitive at Angouleme, 
at Nevac, at Poitiers,§ yet preaching at Paris,|| and 
haunting the scenes of his greatest danger, Calvin 
repaired to Geneva en route to Germany, where, 
unexpectedly to himself, his journey was sum- 
marily arrested ; while his name became ever after 
united with that of the brave Alpine city which, 

« D'Aubigne, vol. 1, pp. 393, 394. 

f "Ut pro merito aboniiriarer, animam meam pupugisti. " Cal. 
vini Opusc. Latin, p. 123. 

t Beza, Hist, des Egl. Kef., pp. 6, 7. § Ibid., p. 98. 

|| D'Aubigne. 



JOHN CALYIX. 



171 



under liis sway became the Rome of the Reforma- 
tion. 

And here, at the name of Geneva, it becomes 
not only interesting and instructive, but germain to 
this history, to sketch the more salient outlines of 
the gallant and romantic story of that immortal 
city, as magnificent in the beauty of its landscape, 
clasped to the snowy bosom of the Alps, bathing its 
feet in the waters of lake Leman, as in the gran- 
deur of its moving history. 

Geneva was at first simply a rural township, and 
as a part of Gaul it became an appendage of the 
Roman empire when the emperors leashed the Eu- 
ropean provinces to their car of conquest. In the 
fourth century, under Honorius, it became a city, 
receiving this title after Caracalla had extended the 
franchise of citizenship to all the Gauls.'' 

From the earliest times, either before or after 
Charlemagne, Geneva possessed rights and liberties 
which guaranteed the citizens against the despotism 
of their feudal lords. The Genevese claimed to have 
been free so long that the memory of man runneth 
not to the contrary ;\ and it is certain that the pre- 
cise date of the birth of their freedom is shrouded 
in the mist of remote antiquity. 

The Genevese soil was composed of three strata: 
the political lords, the counts of Geneva, who even 
so early as the eleventh century had extended their 
rule over an immense and magnificent territory; 

2 Mem. d'Arclieologie ; quoted in D'Aubigue', vol. 1, p. 11. 
' f Ibid. 



172 THE HUGUENOTS. 

the bishops, who, gifted with superior intelligence, 
respected by the barbarians as the high-priests of 
Rome, and knowing how to acquire vast possessions 
by slow degrees, finally confiscated for a time the 
independence of the citizens without much cere- 
mony, and united the quality of prince with that of 
bishop and the burghers, not very numerous, but 
always intelligent, and resolute to maintain their 
parchment guarantees. 

When the counts of Geneva had been hood- 
winked by the cunning of the bishops into ceding 
the city to them, they had reserved the old palace, 
and part of the criminal jurisprudence, and con- 
tinued to hold the secondary towns and the rural 
district of their countship.t 

But in process of time dissensions arose. The 
conflicting jurisdictions of the bishop-princes and 
the counts clashed. 

Prelates who had already turned their croziers 
into swords, their flocks into serfs, and their pas- 
toral dwellings into fortified castles, hungered for 
more power. The battered walls of Geneva yet 
bear the marks of the fierce struggle which ensued, 
and which continued through the thirteenth, four- 
teenth, and fifteenth centuries. 

In the middle of the thirteenth century, Pierre 
de Savoy, a soldier and a politician, made a hercu- 
lean effort to recover the city of his ancestors. The 
conflict lasted long; but eventually he was obliged 
to surrender his claims. Disgusted with his failure, 

* D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 13. f Ibid. 



JOHN CALVIN. 



173 



and exhausted by bis unceasing activity, Pierre 
finally retired to bis castle of Cbillon, where every 
day be used to sail upon the beautiful lake, luxuri- 
ously enjoying the charms of nature lavished around ; 
while the melodious voice of his minstrel, mingling 
with the rippling of the waters, celebrated the lofty 
deeds of this illustrious paladin.* 

In the fifteenth century the counts of Savoy, 
having added several other provinces to Genevois, 
and become dukes, more eagerly desired the acqui- 
sition of Geneva than ever. They changed their 
tactics. Sheathing the ineffectual sword, they re- 
sorted to wily diplomacy. The new campaign was 
opened with spirit, and pope Martin T. was peti- 
tioned to confer upon the dukes of Savoy the full 
secular authority in Geneva. 

But the citizens, who in the lapse of ages had 
engrossed the civil government of the city, became 
alarmed at the news of this manoeuvre; and know- 
ing that " Rome ought not to lay its paw upon king- 
doms," good papists as they then were, they deter- 
mined to resist the pope himself, if necessary, in the 
defence of their liberties. Placing their hands upon 
the gospels, they exclaimed, " Xo alienation of the 
city or of its territory ; this we swear."t 

The sovereign of Savoy, balked in his best 
scheme, withdrew his petition. But Martin T., 
while staying three months at Geneva, on his return 
in 1418 from the Council of Constance, ran a muck 

* Monnmenta Hist. Patriae, vol 3. p. 74 
f D'Aubigne. vol. 1, p. 18. 



174 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



with, the ancient city. There Vv as something in the 
pontiff which told him that liberty did not accord 
with the papal rale, He was alarmed at witnessing 
the franchises of the Genevese, " He feared those 
general councils that spoil every thing/' says a 
manuscript chronicle in the Turin library f " he felt 
uneasy about those turbulent folk, imbued with the 
ideas of the Swiss, who were always whispering in 
the ears of the Genevese the license of popular gov- 
ernment." 

" The pope," says D'Aubigne, "resolved to rem- 
edy this, but not in the way the dukes of Savoy 
proposed. These princes desired to secure Geneva 
in order to increase their own power. Martin 
thought it better to confiscate it to his benefit. At 
the Council of Constance it had just been decreed 
that episcopal elections should take place accord- 
ing to the canonical laws, by the chapter, unless for 
some reasonable and manifest cause the pontiff 
should think fit to name a person more useful to 
the church. Martin thought that the necessity of 
curbing republicanism was a reasonable motive ; and 
accordingly, as soon as he reached Turin, he trans- 
lated the bishop of Geneva to the archiepiscopal see 
of the Tarentoise, and heedless alike of the anger 
of the Savoy dukes, and of the rights of the canons 
and the citizens, he nominated Jean de Roche taill^e, 
patriarch in partibus of Constantinople, bishop and 
prince of Geneva, "t 

* D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 19, 20, 

f D'Aubigne, Ref. in Calvin's Time, vol. 1, p. 20. 



JOHN CALVIN. 



175 



The Genevese, surprised and overawed, acqui- 
esced in sullen discontent. Seventy odd years roll- 
ed away, and still the faithful citizens remembered 
their broken charters, and hugged the memory of 
their ancient franchises. At the commencement of 
the sixteenth century, driven to desperation by the 
tyranny of their bishop-prince, they determined to 
revolt, and turning towards Switzerland, whose 

" Hills, rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun," 

had always borne up a hardy race of freemen, they 
invited the powerful Helvetic confederacy to assist 
them in expelling the usurper.* 

In its earlier stages the contest w^as a political 
one, but ere long it assumed a religious phase. The 
Eeformation was preached. Its spirit took invinci- 
ble hold of German Switzerland. The towns of the 
Helvetic confederacy had often come into collision 
with the grasping dukes of Savoy. Cherishing 
republicanism as their palladium of safety, they 
also hated the bishop-prince of Geneva, who had 
despoiled their Genevese cousins of their birth- 
right, besides planting an inimical state upon their 
borders. Switzerland therefore lent a willing ear 
to the Genevan ambassadors, who came to solicit 
the assistance of the confederation. And when, a 
little later, the Helvetic cities had the additional 
motive of wishing to clutch Geneva as a trophy 
won to the reformed faith which they professed, 
they threw themselves into the contest with re- 

% Bonivard, Chroniq., 2, p. 290. 



176 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



doubled ardor. Precisely as tlie house of Savoy, 
backed by the pope, wished to extend its limits in 
a monarchical and Romanist sense, Switzerland 
desired to extend hers in a popular and Protestant 
sense.* 

The Genevese did not at once accept the Ref- 
ormation. Numberless fierce quarrels followed its 
entrance within their walls.t But gradually the 
citizens, remembering the tyranny under which 
they had groaned when the bishop-prince swayed 
the sceptre of Geneva, recalling the mischief which 
pope Martin had worked them, and perceiving that 
the liberality of the reform contrasted strongly with 
the intolerant despotism of Latin orthodoxy, came 
over and ranged themselves under the Protestant 
banners, adjudging their franchises safer under the 
Reformation than under Rome. 

William Far el of Gap had joined the Protestant 
missionaries when they undertook to extend their 
creed into the Romanic border lands,;): and by his 
boldness, eloquence, and unceasing energy, he gave 
brave help, in proselyting Geneva. Instigated by 
him, the city council had publicly proclaimed that 
Geneva adhered to the Reformation; and so won- 
derful was the spell of his preaching, that priests 
Avere seen to throw off their vestments before the 
altar, and confess the Protestant creed. § 

Such w r as the posture of affairs when John Cal- 
vin entered Geneva in the year 1535. His inten- 

* Kanke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, p. 142. 

+ Ibid., p. 144! J Ibid., p. 142. § Ibid., p. 145. 



JOHN CALVIN. 



177 



tion was merely to visit Farel for a few clays, and 
then seek in Germany an asylum where he might 
devote himself to tranquil meditation.* Farel, how- 
ever, perceiving his vast ability, was resolved not to 
permit him to depart ; and when Calvin refused to 
remain in Geneva, he announced the wrath of Al- 
mighty God upon him should he shirk his duty, for 
heaven, he said, would make the quietness of study 
a curse to him.t 

Calvin afterwards said that it appeared to him 
as if he had seen the hand of God stretched forth 
from above to hold him back ; he dared not resist 
it.£ 

Calvin and Farel clasped hands, and immedi- 
ately began to preach. 

It seems that there were in Geneva certain per- 
sons who had adopted the reformed faith because 
they thought that it would bring them increased 
personal license. These latitudinarians were soon 
offended at the strict discipline which the two ora- 
tors of the Eeformation proclaimed. They intrigued 
so effectually that Farel and Calvin were exiled.§ 

Calvin was far from caring too anxiously for his 
person. He had been obliged to endure opposition, 
combined with agony of conscience, which he de- 
clared were more bitter than death — the mere 
remembrance of which made him tremble. He 
began now again to wander and to learn; in par- 
ticular he commenced a correspondence with the 

s Beza, Vita Calyini. f Banke. id. 147. 

I Calyini, Opusc, Latin. § Ranke, p. 148. 

8* 



178 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



German reformers, with Melancthon, with Bucer, 
with Capito, and formed a closer acquaintance with 
them at the Diet.* 

It soon appeared that he could not be dispensed 
with at Geneva. The independence of the city was 
menaced in two directions : one party, which was 
inclined to the Yatican, were disposed to reinaugu- 
rate the old regime; the other showed a spirit of 
compliance with foreign dictation which imperilled 
the freedom of the town. 

Both these factions were subdued, after long and 
sanguinary domestic contests, and those remained 
triumphant who regarded the maintenance of the 
strict Protestant discipline as the salvation of the 
city. 

Deeply penetrated with this conviction, they 
looked upon all they had suffered as a punishment 
for the expulsion of their preachers. It was re- 
solved to recall them. Although Calvin was ex- 
tremely reluctant to return, yet Far el's solemn 
adjurations impelled him to accede to the call; and 
while Farel departed for Neufchatel, whither he 
had engaged to go, the great French divine reen- 
tered Geneva as a conqueror in 154Lt 

The condition of his return, though not dis- 
tinctly stated, was still tacitly understood to be 
the adoption of his system of ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline.:): 

Calvin instantly went to work. He planted 

• Ranke, pp. 148, 149. t P- 149 * 

t Ibid. 



JOHN CALVIN. 



179 



education as the basis of his state.* He new-mod- 
elled the civil code, and shaped it to strict republi- 
canism, sealing his renovation with these words of 
Christ: " The teuth shall make you free."')* He 
next organized the Reformation. The Genevese 
reformers shaped their divinity on the model of his 
" Christian Institutes," which were written in 1536, 
and dedicated to Francis I., before the final return 
to Geneva. J Ere long this work was scattered 
broadcast through Latin Europe. The Reforma- 
tion lost its heterogeneous character. The conflict- 
ing sects were melted into uunr, and France at last 
accepted the essential tenets of the despised Vau- 
DOIS when she permitted the plastic hand of her 
great Genevan doctor to mould her into Protes- 
tantism. 

The abbe Anqu6til, an old chronicler whose 
words at one time were in wide favor with the pa- 
pists, considers the " Christian Institutes" to have 
been the chief support of the " heresy;" "for they 
systematized the Protestant doctrines, and enabled 
their assemblies to keep together even when their 
ministers were torn from them."§ 

God, by giving in the sixteenth century a man 
who to the lively faith of Luther and the scriptural 
understanding of Zwingle joined an organizing fac- 
ulty and a creative mind of rare genius, furnished 
the complete reformer. If Luther laid the founda- 



* CaMni, Opusc. f St. John 8 : 32. 

% Duncan, Religions Wars of France, p. 8. 
§ Anquetil, Esprit, de la Ligue. 



18J 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tion, if Zwingle and others built the walls, Calvin 
completed the temple of God.* 

Then Geneva became the school of the Latin 
and Anglo-Saxon, as Wittemberg was of the Ger- 
man and Sclavonic Eeformation. 

As soon as Guy de Br^s and many other fiery 
scholars returned from Geneva to the Low Coun- 
tries, the momentous contest between the rights of 
the people and the revolutionary and bloody des- 
potism of Philip II. of Spain began; heroic strug- 
gles took place, and the creation of the republic of 
the United Netherlands was their glorious termi- 
nation. 

John Knox returned to his native Scotland 
from Geneva, where he studied several years ; then 
popery, arbitrary power, and the exotic immorality 
of the French court, imported by queen Mary Stuart, 
made way on the north of the Tweed for the pure 
enthusiasm which bred Christian liberty and civil- 
ization. 

Those Englishmen who sought an asylum in 
Geneva during the bitter persecutions of 6 • Bloody 
Mary," imbibed there a love of the gospel and of 
civil liberty; and when they returned to Great 
Britain, these fountains gushed out beneath their 
footsteps. 

Numberless disciples of Calvin carried with 
them every year into France the august principles 
of the Genevese school. t 

Even the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, 

* D'Aubigne, vol. L, p. 321. f Ibid., pp. 4, 5. 



JOHN CALVIN. 



181 



who, quitting their inhospitable country in the 
reign of that royal pedant James I., planted on 
this continent their populous and mighty colonies, 
may in no improper sense claim Geneva as their 
mother. Calvin, looming through the centuries, 
may stretch his hand across the water from Mont 
Blanc, and placing it upon the head of the Ameri- 
can Eepublic, murmur a proud benediction, and 
say, "You too are mine; I created you." 



182 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 

It will be remembered that the French king's 
first edict against heresy had been issued on the 9th 
of June, 1523.* Nearly three years later, February 
5, 1526, government issued another fiat. In those 
days all proclamations were made by a herald who 
travelled from city to city, trumpet in hand, and 
sounding his trumpet in the public squares to collect 
an audience, cried out his message in a loud voice. 

On the morning of the 5th of February there 
was an unwonted stir in the streets of Paris. 
Crowds of excited people thronged the pavements, 
and with vehement gesticulation and voluble tongue 
harangued one another upon some question of ex- 
citing import. The great rush was towards the 
Louvre. There, at ten in the morning, ' a herald 
took his stand upon the palace steps, and after the 
customary flourish of the trumpet, cried, by order 
of Parliament, "All persons are forbidden to put 
up to sale, or translate from the Latin into French, 
the epistles of St, Paul, the Apocalypse, and other 
boohs. Henceforward no printer shall print any of 
the writings of Luther. No one shall speak of the 
ordinances of the church or of images otherwise 
than as holy church ordains. All books of the 

« See Chapter 10, p. 1?9. 



THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 



183 



Holy Bible, translated into French, sliall be given 
up by those who possess them, and carried within 
a week to the clerks of the court. All prelates, 
priests, and their curates, shall forbid their parish- 
ioners to have the least doubt of the Romish faith."^ 

When the herald paused, the vast crowd began 
to disperse. The comments were various. " Her- 
esy should be choked in blood," said some. " The 
Sorbonne fear Faust's type," said others. The ma- 
jority turned away with the peculiar French shrug, 
and said quietly, " Patience; we shall see." 

The prior of the Carthusians, the abbot of the 
Celestines, monks of all colors, " imps of antichrist," 
says an old chronicler, openly rejoiced in this brill- 
iant triumph over heresy. " They gave help to the 
band of the Sorbonne," and cried, Amen, at the 
end of every sentence of the proclamation. 

A little later the new edict was cried in Sens, 
Orleans, Meaux, and "in all the bailiwicks, sene- 
schallies, provostries, viscounties, and estates of 
the realm. "t And now Cardinal Tournon's inquis- 
itors, taking one edict in the right hand and the 
other in the left, walked on their mission of de- 
struction hedged about with the sanctity of public 
law. 

France bled at every pore. 

History teaches best by individual instances. 
Descriptions of collective cruelties lose their graphic 
power through the breadth of the delineation. 

c * Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris sous Francois I., p. 276. 
Quoted in D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 342. f Ibid. 



184 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



There was a young man about twenty-eight 
years of age, a licentiate of laws, William Joubert, 
who had been sent by his father, king's advocate at 
La Rochelle, to Paris to study the practice of the 
metropolitan courts. Notwithstanding the prohi- 
bition of the Parliament, young Joubert, who was 
of a thoughtful disposition, ventured to inquire into 
the validity of the papal faith. Conceiving doubts, 
he said in the presence of some friends, that " not 
Genevieve nor even Mary could save him, but the 
Son of God alone." 

For these words the unhappy licentiate was 
thrown into prison under the proclamation. His 
frightened father hastened to Paris by post ; his 
son, his hope, a heretic, and on the point of being 
burned ! 

He gave himself no rest. Never before had he 
so exerted himself to save a client. He went to the 
Sorbonne ; he visited the court ; he besieged the 
Parliament. " Ask what you please," said the mis- 
erable father ; " I am ready to give any sum to save 
my boy's life." 

Vainly did the tireless advocate struggle. On 
Saturday, February 17, 1526, the inquisitor came 
for young Joubert, helped him into the tumbril, 
and carried him to the front of Notre Dame: "Beg 
our Lady's pardon for your infidelity," he said. 
Joubert was silent. He drove on to the front of 
St. Genevieve's church : " Ask pardon of St. Gene- 
vieve." The Eocheller was firm in his new faith. 

He was then taken to the Place Maubert, where 



THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 



185 



the people, seeing his youth and handsome appear- 
ance, deeply commiserated his fate. "Do not pity 
him," said the inquisitorial guard; "he has spoken 
ill of our Lady and of the saints in paradise ; he 
holds to the doctrine of Luther." The executioner 
then approached Joubert, pierced his tongue with 
a red-hot iron, strangled him, and then burned the 
body.* 

A young student who already held a living faith, 
though not yet in priest's orders, had boldly de- 
clared that there was no other Sayiour but Jesus 
Christ, and that the Virgin Mary had no more 
power than the other saints. This youthful cleric 
of Theronanne, in Picardy, had been imprisoned in 
1525, the year preceding the last edict. Terrified 
by that punishment, he went on Christmas eye, with 
a lighted torch in his hand, and stripped to his shirt, 
and "asked pardon of God and of Mary" before 
the church of Notre Dame. In consideration of 
this " very great penitence/' it was thought suffi- 
cient to confine him for seyen years on bread and 
water in the prison of St. Martin-des-Champs ! 

Alone in his dungeon, the recusant scholar 
heard once more the voice of God in the depths of 
his heart ; his conscience beat loud beneath the 
silent porch of his prison. He began to weep hot 
'tears at the remembrance of his denial of the faith ; 
"and forthwith/' says the chronicler, "he returned 
to his folly." Whenever a monk entered his cell, 
the young cleric proclaimed the gospel to him. The 
5 Journal d'un Bourgeois, p. 251. 



186 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



monks were astonished ; the convent was in a fer- 
ment. Merlin, the grand penitentiary, went to him, 
and advised and entreated and stormed and men- 
aced, all without effect. Finally, by order of the 
court, he was taken into the Place de Gr^ve, where 
poor Berquin suffered, and burned alive. * 

Such were the methods employed by the Roman 
commission to force the abhorrent doctrines of their 
church back into the unwilling hearts of those who 
rejected them. They made use of scourges to beat 
them, of cords to strangle them, and of fires to roast 
them alive. 

But the ultramontanists did not confine them- 
selves to hawking at untitled prey. In the year 
1533 they flew at a higher quarry. Margaret of 
Navarre, herself a queen, and sister to the king, 
was venomously assailed. 

Margaret, sighing after the time when a pure 
and spiritual religion should displace the barren 
ceremonials of popery, had published, first at Alen- 
^on, in 1531, and then in Paris, in 1533, a poem, 
entitled, " The Mirror of a Sinful Soul, in which she 
discovers her Faults and Sins, as also the Grace and 
Blessings hestoiced on her by Jesus Christ her Spouse." \ 

The poem w^as mild, spiritual, and inoffensive ; 
but it was written by a queen, and it made a great 
sensation. Many persons read it with interest, and 
admired Margaret's piety and genius. 

But not so the Sorbonne. Becla, the fiery syn- 

© Journal d'un Bourgeois, p. 291 ; cited in D'Aubigne', vol. 1, 
p. 350. f Bellay, Memoires, p. 189. 



THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 



187 



die, absolutely devoured the little book; he had 
never been so charmed with any reading, for at 
last he had proof that the king's sister was a here- 
tic. A diabolical plot had been laid by the ultra- 
montane party to ruin Margaret a little before, and 
her household were steeped to the Hps in the plat.* 
But there was no occasion now to invoke the " Scyth- 
ian ingratitude" of the queen's dependents. "Un- 
derstand me well/' cried the exultant syndic, hold- 
ing up the volume, " this is not a dumb proof, nor a 
half proof, but a literal, clear, complete proof. "t 

The Sorbonne assembled. " Listen," said Beda. 
The attentive doctors fixed their eyes upon the syn- 
dic. Beda read : 

" Jesus, true Fisher thou of souls, 
My only Saviour, only Advocate." 

" Point against the accused," said Beda. He con- 
tinued : 

"Pain or death no more I fear, 
While Jesus Christ is ^vith me here." 

"Confirmation/ 5 growled the syndic. "Listen 

again," said Beda: 

'•Not hell's black depth, nor heaven's vast height. 
Nor sin. with which I wage continual fight, 
Me for a single day can move, 
Oh, holy Father, from thy perfect love." 

The doctors were scandalized. "Xo one," said 
they, " can promise himself any thing certain as 

s Miss Pardoe, Court of Francis I. D'Aubigne, vol. 2, p. 16i. 

y Theod. Beze, Hist, des Egiises Reformies, 1. p. 8. Freer. 
Life of Marguerite d'Angonlenie. 2, p. 112. See Les Marguerites 
de la Marguerite, 1. pp. 63, 65, etc., for the extracts quoted. 



188 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



regards his own salvation unless he has learned it 
by special revelation from God."* 

" Let us proceed," said Beda, overflowing with 
delight : 

"How beautiful is death, 
That brings to weary me the hour of rest. 
Oh, hear ray cry, and hasten, Lord, to me, 
And put an end to ail my misery. " 

" Deadly heresy," said Beda ; " what insolence !" 
He made his report. " Of a truth," said his col- 
leagues, "that is enough to bring anj^body to the 
stake." 

The Sorbonne instantly prohibited the Mirror 
of a Sinful Soul, and put it in the Index Librorum 
ProMbitorum.i 

The faculty decided that the first thing to be 
done was, to search every bookseller's shop in the 
city, and seize all the copies found.J A . priest 
named Leclery made the search. Accompanied by 
the university beadles, he went to every bookstore, 
seized Margaret's poem wherever the tradesmen 
had put it out of sight, and returned to the Sor- 
bonne laden with the spoil. 

Then the faculty deliberated upon the measures 
to be taken against the queen. 

Meantime insinuations and accusations against 
the king's sister were uttered from every pulpit.§ 

* The Council of Trent made this precise declaration an arti- 
cle of faith. 

f D'Aubigne, 2, p. 173. { Calvini, Epp., p. 2. 

§ Lettres de la Keine de Navarre, 1, p. 280. Freer's Life, 2, 
p. 118. 



THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 189 



Margaret was even lampooned in a college comedy 
which Calvin reported.* 

But still the faculty hesitated. They knew that 
Francis loved his sister, and they dreaded punish- 
ment. The monks were everywhere exasperated. 
"Let us have less ceremony," cried one of them, 
the superior of the Grey Friars ; "put the queen of 
Navarre into a sack, and throw her into the Seine. "t 

Margaret supported these insults with admira- 
ble mildness. But when Francis heard of them, 
his rage knew no bounds. The constable Mont- 
morenci, who had caballed against the queen of Na- 
varre,, was publicly snubbed. The insolent prior 
who had proposed to sew Margaret into a bag and 
throw her into the river was next dealt with. " Let 
him suffer the punishment which he desired to inflict 
upon the queen," said Francis. But Margaret in- 
terceded for the wretch, and his life was spared. 
Stripped of his ecclesiastical dignities, he was sent 
to the galleys for two years. § The collegians who 
had satirized the queen were imprisoned,|| and. the 
Sorbonne was severely rated; Beda was exiled, and 
the faculty were advised " not to mix themselves up 
in such dangerous matters, or to beware of the ter- 
rible anger of the king."^" 

Thus auspiciously to Margaret and to the reform 
ended this tilt with the Sorbonne doctors. 

* Calvini, Epp,, p. 1. f Lettres de la Keine, etc., 1, p. 282. 
t Brant orne, Vie de Marguerite. 

§ Castaigne, Notice sur Marguerite. Freer, Vie de Marguerite. 
I! Calvini, Epp., 1. H Ibid. 



19J 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



But a terrible tragedy was about to be enacted, 
which compensated the faithful for the mortification 
of this defeat. The unhappy Vaudois appear once 
more upon the historic stage ; now, as always be- 
fore, agonized as martyrs. 

Some of the Vaudois remained in France even 
after the cessation of the atrocious harries of De 
Montfort and St. Louis in the thirteenth century ; 
and reference has been made to those of Cabrieres 
and Merindole, who were protected by the noble 
fiat of Louis XII.* After their transitory appear- 
ance in that reign, the Vaudois had disappeared 
from the excited history of the succeeding ages, 
and wrapped in the mountain fastnesses of the 
French Alps, they procured the means of subsist- 
ence by pastoral industry. Thus they lived in peace 
with man and serving their fathers' God until the 
Reformation began to stir the w^orld. Then Calvin, 
from his seat in Geneva, offered them his alliance. t 
He was familiar with the hoary tenets of their an- 
cient faith, and he endorsed them. 

Then the tranquil rest of the Vaudois mountain- 
eers was broken. Their confession of faith was re- 
ported at Paris. Eighteen of their principal teach- 
ers were cited to appear before the Parliament.: I 
But ere the summons could be obeyed, a decree of 
extermination was pronounced upon them without 
a hearing. 



* See chap. 9, p. 126. 

\ Du Bellay, Memoires. Calvini, Opnsc. Duncan, p. 9. 
} Ibid. 



THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 191 



William clu Bellay was then governor of Pro- 
vence. This gentleman was appointed by Francis 
to execute the sanguinary edict. With a humanity 
rare in those cruel times, -the governor determined 
to see the king, and if possible to turn him from 
his purpose. Francis, who had previously appoint- 
ed Du Bellay his envoy to the conference of Smal- 
calcl,* held him in high favor, and condescended to 
hear his representations. 

" I have come, sire," said he, " to inform your 
majesty of the actual character of the Vaudois, 
which, in my official capacity, I have taken great 
pains to investigate. They do certainly differ from 
our communion in many respects ; but they are a 
simple, irreproachable people, benevolent, temper- 
ate, humane, and of unshaken loyalty. Agriculture 
is their sole occupation ; they have no legal conten- 
tions or party strife. Hospitality is one of their 
cardinal virtues ; and they have no beggars among 
them. No one is tempted to steal, for his wants 
are freely supplied by asking."! 

"But they are heretics," responded Francis 
sternly. 

"I acknowledge, sire," said the governor, "that 
they rarely enter our churches ; and if they do, that 
they pray with their eyes fixed on the ground. They 
pay no homage to saints and images ; they do not 
use holy water ; they do not acknowledge the ben- 
efit to be derived from pilgrimages, nor do they say 
mass either for the living or the dead." 

* Du Bellay, Memoires. t 



192 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



" And is it for such men as these," said the king, 
" that you ask clemency ? Go, go, Du Bellay ; for 
your sake they shall receive pardon, if within three 
months they present themselves before the arch- 
bishop of Aix, renounce their heresies, and become 
reconciled with the mother church. If they are still 
rebellious, they must expect the utmost severity. 
Meantime the edict stands unrepealed. Think you 
that we burn heretics in France only that they may 
be nourished in the Alps-?"* 

The Vaudois cherished their patriarchal opin- 
ions too faithfully, they were embalmed in the tra- 
dition of too much suffering, to enable them even to 
think of submitting to the king's conditions. They 
therefore awaited their doom in frozen despair. 

But it happened that the Prove^al Parliament 
had for its president an advocate of unrivalled legal 
skill, M. Chassanee, and his noble heart prompted 
him to use every wile known to his profession to 
defeat the decree ; and he did indeed succeed in 
postponing the execution of the edict until after his 
death.t 

But Chassanee was succeeded by a fierce bigot 
named D'Oppede, who had no scruples to over- 
come. That we may not be accused of overcoloring 
the woful catastrophe which followed, we extract 
the account from the unfriendly pages of a Romish 
chronicler, the abb£ Anquetil : 

* Du Bellay, Memoires. 

t Browning, Hist. Huguenots, p. 23. Abbe Anquetil, Esprit 
de la Ligne, vol. 1, p. 13. Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinism, iiv. 2. 



THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 193 



" In 1545, Francis I. gave permission to employ 
the aid of arms against the Vaudois mountaineers. 
It was granted at the solicitation of the Baron 
d'Oppede, president of the Parliament of Aix 3 a 
violent and sanguinary man, who revived against 
those heretics assembled in the valleys of the Alps 
on the side of Provence a parliamentary decree 
given five years before." 

"Every thing was horrible and cruel," says the 
historian De Thou, "in the sentence denounced 
against them ; and every thing was still more hor- 
rible and cruel in its execution. Twenty-two vil- 
lages were plundered and burned, with an inhu- 
manity of which the history of the most barbarous 
people scarcely affords an example. The unfortu- 
nate inhabitants, surprised during the night, and 
pursued from rock to rock by the lurid light of the 
fires which consumed their dwellings, only avoided 
one ambuscade to fall into another. The piteous 
cries of old men, of women, and of children, far from 
softening the hearts of the soldiery, as mad with 
rage as their chiefs, only served to indicate the 
track of the fugitives and mark their hiding-places, 
to which the assassins carried their fury. 

"Voluntary surrender did not exempt the men 
from slaughter or the women from excesses of bru- 
tality which human nature blushes to record. . It 
was forbidden, under penalty of death, to afford 
them any refuge. At Cabrieres, the principal town 
of the canton, seven hundred men were murdered 
in cold blood; and the women who had remained 

Huguenots. 0 



194 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



in tlieir houses were shut up in a barn, which was 
filled with straw and then fired. Those who at- 
tempted to escape from the window were hacked 
back by swords or impaled on pikes. At the last, 
according to the tenor of the sentence, the houses 
were razed, the woods cut down, the fruit-trees 
plucked up by the roots, and this country, so fertile 
and so populous, became an uninhabited desola- 
tion."* 

Such is the ghastly picture of this massacre, as 
painted by the reluctant pens of two inimical his- 
torians, De Thou and the abb6 Anqu6til. 

Maimbourg, in describing the scene, says that 
more than three thousand persons were slain, and 
that nine hundred houses were plundered and then 
burned.t 

Thus with a quivering wail passed this last rem- 
nant of the ancient Vaudois from the inhospitable 
and persecuting shores of time, to join tlieir mar- 
tyred ancestors in eternity. 

But the Vaudois had accomplished their mission. 
They had dropped the seed which sprang up and 
bore a hundred-fold. Severity, far from checking 
the progress of the Reformation, only inspired its 
professors with sublimer energy. They died, on 
the scaffold or amid the flames, with the steadfast 
devotion of martyrs. 

Hitherto the reformers had only ventured to 

* Abbe Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 14. De Thou, 
torn. 1. 

j- Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinism e, liv. 2. 



THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 



195 



assemble at night, and in the unknown byways and 
slums of France. Now they met openly in the light 
of day. They .even erected a church in the heart of 
scoffing Paris, while the chief cities in the provinces 
hastened to imitate the example of the capital.* 

Thus was fulfilled the later saying of John Cal- 
vin, that " the kingdom of Christ is strengthened 
and established more by the blood of martyrs than 
by force of arms."t 

* Duncan, Religions Wars in France, p. 10. 
f Calyin, Comm. sur S. Jean 17:36. 



196 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

EKENCH POLITICS. 

On the 31st of March, 1547, Francis I. died. 
Vacillating in his temper, arbitrary in his rule, self- 
ish in his policy, yet generous in his private rela- 
tions, he was the Don Quixote of a vicious chivalry. 
By his death, one more link was broken which 
bound France to feudalism. 

Francis was succeeded by his son Henry II., 
a prince who inherited many of the qualities, and 
who adopted the essential policy of the paladin 
king ; but he did not sway an unvexed sceptre. 
Schism, dangerous and ever growing, was within 
the temple ; the court was fretted by hostile cabals ; 
the Commons were turbulent ; France bristled with 
rebellion ; while from without, the pope had his 
clutch upon Henry's dominion, England fomented 
discord, and Spain, under Charles V., 

" Forging the prodigal gold of either Ind 
To armed thunderbolts," 

was a perpetual menace. 

Let us glance for a moment at the politics of 
the court at this critical epoch, and form the ac- 
quaintance of some of the grand historic figures who 
were destined to sway France, and to mould her 
future — some by their wicked ambition, others by 
the healthful play of their noble aspirations. 



FEENCH POLITICS. 



197 



The reign of Henry II. was emphatically an 
embryo period. It contained the roots of " many 
and tall trees of mischief," which afterwards covered 
France with an accursed shade. 

Initiation into the vile mysteries of the temple 
of court intrigue — this is essential. 

Four rival factions formed the substratum of 
the state. 

Anne de Montmorenci, constable of France, the 
minister and favorite of Henry II., headed one 
clique. Montmorenci was able in the cabinet, and 
had won wide fame in the -wars of the age ; but his 
character was stained by bigotry and fierce rancor.* 

The leader of a second party was Diana de Poi- 
tiers, duchess of Valentinois, the king's mistress, 
who, through her wit and beauty, possessed bound- 
less influence with her royal paramour.t 

Catharine de Medici, a daughter of the illustri- 
ous Florentine house which had given two popes to 
Christendom, the consort of Francis I., and king- 
Henry's mother, led a third faction in this scramble 
for power. Catharine's character had barely shown 
itself during the lifetime of her husband ; but now 
she began to emerge from her former, obscurity, and 
during the successive reigns of her three sons, she 
possessed supreme influence in the government.^: 
The queen mother surpassed Machiavelli himself 
in tortuous statescraft. By constantly adjusting 

* Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 3. Brantonie, Yie de Henri 
II, vol. 7, p. 11. 

t Ibid. Vielleville, vol. 1, p. 203, et seq. J Ibid. 



198 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



and readjusting the equilibrium of the contending 
factions, she prevented each from. overwhelming the 
other ; played one off against another ; and by pro- 
longing this contest, she extended the duration of 
her own power.* 

The fourth faction of the court was that of the 
princes of Lorraine, better known in history as the 
Guises. t These were the greediest and most un- 
scrupulous jackals of this courtly pack. The Guises 
were looked, on as foreigners, and their power in 
France w r as a mushroom growth. 

Een6 de Lorraine, who fought with Charles the 
Bold of Burgundy, and who more than once brought 
the claims of his house upon Provence, Naples, and 
Jerusalem to remembrance, ordained in his last will 
that Antoine, his eldest son, should succeed him in 
Lorraine and Bar, and that the other, Claude, should 
inherit his possessions lying in France : these were 
estates scattered throughout Normandy, Picardy, 
Flanders, and the Isle of France, with the baronies 
of Joinville, Mayenne, Elbceuf, and the counties of 
Aumale and Guise,'! all destined a little later to 
give names to distinguished warriors and prelates. 

Among the chivalric leaders of Francis I., this 
Claude, who styled himself " Guise," whose domain 
had been raised from a county into a dukedom,§ 
made a brilliant figure. His bravery and miracu- 
lous preservation at the battle of Marignano, the 

* Browning, p. 25. t Davila, liv. 1. 

t Kanke, Civil Wars and Monarchy of France, p. 168. 
§ Brantome, Vie de Henri II., vol. 7. 



FRENCH POLITICS. 



199 



central part which he took in preserving the peace of 
the kingdom during the captivity of the king after 
the fatal rout at Pavia, the pains he took to ingra- 
tiate himself with the masses and to cement the 
foundations of his power, ere long made him a great 
name in the realm. To crown all, he made a for- 
tunate marriage, wedding a princess of the royal 
blood, Antoinette de Bourbon. From this union 
sprang six sons, full of vital energy, three of whom 
devoted themselves to the church, and three to 
arms, all achieving fame in their respective spheres.* 
These were Francis duke of Guise, sometimes 
called prince of Joinville, Charles archbishop of 
Eheims and cardinal of Lorraine, Claude duke 
d'Aumale, Louis cardinal of Guise, Francis grand 
prior, and Rene marquis d'Elboeu£t 

Such was the formidable house of Guise, prop- 
ped by its six stalwart pillars ; and even in the reign 
of Francis I., their rise and progress towards power 
had been so rapid and insidious, that the dying king 
bequeathed to Henry a legacy of distrust of their 
talents and ambition, which he thought — rightly, as 
the sequel proved — were of an order to endanger 
the peace of France.^ 

Between these factions raged the utmost hate, 

s Kanke, p. 168. f Dayila, liv. 1. 

. J Duncan, p. 20. This quatrain ^vas then very common in 
France : 

"Le roy Francois ne faillit point, 

Quand il predit que ceux de Guise 
Mettroient ses enfants en pourpoint, 
Et tous ses sujets en chemise." 

Sec Memoires de Conde. and Same Menippee. 



200 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Usually they were at open war ; but when peace 
reigned, it was but a hollow truce — mars gravity? sub 
pace latet, war bitterer for the disguise. A coalition 
had been formed between Diana de Poitiers and 
the constable of France ; so that the chief of the 
Montmorencis and the courtesan duchess for a time 
swayed the sceptre with untrammelled hands.* The 
duchess disliked Cardinal Tournon, and one of Hen- 
ry's first acts was to dismiss this personified inqui- 
sition from the public service.t Montmorenci fa- 
vored this move, and seeing that his only strength 
lay in Diana's smiles, he exerted himself to the ut- 
most to flatter the king's passion for her. 

Whatever was done or left undone owed its ori- 
gin to no zeal for the public welfare, but was simply 
a manoeuvre to deceive the king, w T hom all parties 
conspired to blind, and who throughout his reign 
was merely the empty shadow of an authority which 
was really vested in powers behind the throne. 

Such was the political situation at the com- 
mencement of the year 1548. 

The ambitious projects, of the house of Lorraine 
were rendered doubly dangerous and difficult to 
foil by the masterly tactics of Francis duke of 
Guise, one of the most remarkable men of that age. 
As a soldier, he had distinguished himself by the 
capture of Calais from the English, who had usurped 
it in a preceding century, and by his defence of Metz 
against the Spaniards. He possessed in an emi- 
nent degree most of those external advantages which 

* Browning, p. 25. f Ibid. 



FRENCH POLITICS. 



201 



captivate the multitude — a commanding presence, 
dignity, affability, an ingratiating address, and a 
certain chivalry. These rendered him the admira- 
tion of the populace, and made him the delight and 
ornament of the court.* 

His aspiring schemes were of course powerfully 
supported by his influential brothers with their hosts 
of retainers, all as anxious as himself to share the 
patronage and emoluments of office. t 

In pursuance of her favorite policy of an adjust- 
ed equilibrium, Catharine de Medici coalesced with 
the Guises, whom she both hated and feared,^: 
against Montmorenci, who stood in the path of 
their ambition. 

It was against this powerful confederacy that 
the constable had to struggle. Feeling his inabil- 
ity to resist it single-handed, he had already, as we 
have seen, called Diana de Poitiers to his side. 
He now resolved to attach the princes of the blood 
to his party. The next heirs to the throne after 
Francis and the other sons of king Henry, were 
Antony de Bourbon and the prince of Gond6. 

Antony de Bourbon, who had become king of 
Navarre by his marriage with Jane d'Albr6t, the 
daughter of the good queen Margaret, was weak, 
indolent, vacillating, and too fond of ease to take 
any active part in the troubled and stirring scenes 
which were soon to convulse the kingdom. He was 
only roused from his habitual torpor by the hope 
of recovering that portion of his realm which had 

* Duncan, p. 16. f Ibid. X Yielleville, vol. 1, p. 298. 
9* 



202 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



been seized and retained by Spain. As his success 
in this object depended entirely upon the armed 
assistance of France, he was easily drawn into the 
ranks of the ruling party by empty professions of 
friendship and hollow promises of material aid."* 

His brother, the prince of Cond6, who was con- 
nected with Montmorenci by a marriage with his 
niece, was a man of more determined character ; 
and though not possessed of those high qualities 
which are requisite in a successful party leader, he 
compensated the political defect of ordinary talent 
by great moral courage and inflexibility of pnr- 
pose.t 

With many others of the higher nobility, he had 
espoused the reformed creed; and though he was 
too frank and open to shine as a diplomatist in an 
age when fraud and mendacity were the prime mer- 
its of a negotiator, he yet brought vast strength to 
the ranks of Protestantism. His finances were 
scanty, but he was liberal to his followers ; and 
when life was at stake or honor in peril, he dis- 
played a promptitude and magnanimity of bearing 
which commanded universal respect. 

Cond6 was the intimate friend of the Chatillons, 
an ancient family which had once exercised sover- 
eign authority over Nantua and Moulon^t, two towns 
in the neighborhood of Geneva.^ 

The marshal de Chatillon had married Louisa 
de Montmorenci, the constable's sister, by whom 

* Duncan, pp. 17, 18. t Ibid, 

f Brantome. Vie de Coligny. Browning, note, p. 37. 



FRENCH POLITICS. 



203 



lie had three sons, two of whom achieved an im- 
mortality of fame. The eldest of these, Odet, be- 
came bishop of Beauvais and Cardinal Chatillon. 
He was a keen observer of the world, mild in his 
address, polished in his manners, an adept in the 
intrigues of the day, and possessed of all those win- 
ning and conciliatory arts which disarm an enemy 
and fix a friend. 

The second son was the famous Gaspard Cha- 
tillon de Coligny, admiral of Prance,* one of the 
brightest and grandest names in history, doubly 
consecrated by a life of sublime fidelity to Christian 
duty, and by martyrdom. 

The gallant Francis Chatillon d'Andelot was the 
youngest member of the family ; he held the office 
of colonel-general of French infantry. t 

The two younger Chatillons, better known by 
their seigniorial appellations of Coligny and D'An- 
delot, were early initiated into politics by their 
uncle of Montmorenci, who placed great reliance 
upon their counsel and discretion. The fine talents 
of this famous family, their influential connections, 

* The office of admiral of France is supposed to have been cre- 
ated in 1337, during the reign of Charles the Fair. Yalne, in his 
elaborate coininerjtarv on the French marine ordinance of 1681, 
gives a list of these officers, amounting in number to thirty-eight, 
down to 1626, at which date Henri de Montmorenci resigned the 
office into the hands of Louis XIII. , or rather into those of Eiche- 
lieu, who suppressed it by an ordinance dated January 16, 1627, 
together with that of constable of France. The duties of the old 
admiral were somewhat similar to those of an American secretary 
of the navy. 

f Bran tome, Vie de Coligny. 



204 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



their high offices, rendered them most formidable 
to the vaulting house of Guise. 

D'Andelot became very early an enthusiastic 
adherent of the Reformation. His open and gen- 
erous nature made him scorn concealment, and he 
frequently startled the court by his liberal conver- 
sation.* On one occasion Henry II., upon hearing 
that his " colonel-general had been heard to utter 
heretical sentiments, sent for him, on "the advice of 
his favorite, Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, and in- 
arrogated him upon his opinions. 

" How is this, sirrah?" said the king menacingly ; 
'have you too become moon-stricken, that you 
utter this vile trash of Calvin, and rant like a com- 
mon heretic against our holy mother church?" 

Although D'Andelot had been cautioned to use 
prudence in his answer, he scorned to equivocate, 
and he replied firmly, but respectfully, " Sire, in 
matters- of religion I can use no disguise, nor could 
I deceive God should I attempt it. Dispose as you 
please of my life, property, and appointments ; but 
my soul, independent of every other sovereign, is 
only subject to my Creator, from whom I received 
it, and whom alone I deem it my duty to obey in 
matters of conscience. In a word, sire, I would 
rather die than go to mass."t 

This calm speech roused the king to such fury, 
that he drew his rapier and menaced the intrepid 
disciple with instant death. But when his rage 

• Brantome, Vie de Coligny. 
t Brantome, Browning, Duncan. 



F BENCH POLITICS. 



205 



cooled, he stripped D'Andelot of his honors, and 
threw him into the prison of Melun.* 

This punishment had no moral effect. It was 
well known that the court was tainted with Prot- 
estantism, and that many nobles were as heretical 
as D'Andelot, though few might have the Christian 
courage so openly to avow their faith. It seemed 
partial and ungenerous to incarcerate a gentleman 
who had shown so much honor and daring. So 
that this imprisonment increased the popularity of 
the persecuted doctrines of the Bible. The reform- 
ers, jubilant oyer the support of D'Andelot, and 
trusting that all the members of his powerful family 
would espouse his creed, fearlessly assembled at the 
Pr6-aux-Cleves, situated in the modern Faubourg St. 
Germain, and at that time one of the most fashion- 
able promenades in Paris. There they sang the 
Protestant psalms of Marat in the open air. It 
became the fashion to visit these reunions; and 
many an idle courtier, who had lounged down to 
ridicule the "fanatics," as they were called, returned 
with his curses turned into benedictions, and his 
mocking laughter choked in prayer. Antony de 
Bourbon, king of Navarre, and Jane d'Albret, were 
habitues of these gatherings; and while they ani- 
mated the preachers by their presence, they did 
not deign to disguise their attachment to the new 
opinions.t 

Coligny was remarkable for his caution in tak- 

* Yie de Coligny, p. 86. Browning, p. 37. 
f Duncan, pp. 12, 13. 



203 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ing a step, but when lie reached a decision lie was 
inflexible. No one possessed greater intrepidity or 
more perseverance. Difficulties, instead of daunt- 
ing him, only spurred him to greater activity, and 
served only to excite his ardor to surmount thera.* 

It was his brother D'Anclelot who first per- 
suaded him to inquire into the justice of the Prot- 
estant claims. Coligny paused long. He studied 
carefully. Meantime he used his utmost exertions 
to secure the liberation of his brother. With great 
difficulty he at length prevailed on D'Andelot to 
acknowledge that he had spoken to the king too 
roughly. This acknowledgment, backed by the 
influence of Montmorenci, obtained his dismissal 
from the Melun dungeon. t 

Pope Paul IT. was very angry when the news 
reached him that D'Andelot was again at liberty. 
He imperiously demanded that he should be burned 
for heresy. Easier said than done. D'Andelot's 
uncle was then the arbiter of France; his brother, 
the cardinal of Chatillon, was one of the grand- 
inquisitors :X he would doubtless hesitate long be- 
fore consigning so dear a relative to the flames ; so 
the unhappy pontiff had to content himself for a 
while with less distinguished victims. The Guises 
shared in the sadness of the holy father on this 
account, and they set spies upon Montmorenci 
while his nephew was in prison, in the foolish hoj)e 
of being able to find some ground on which to base 

* Vie de Coligny. f Browning, p. 37. 

t Ibid. 



FKENCH POLITICS 



207 



an accusation against that persecuting Saul of favor- 
ing heretics.* 

Coligny, like Calvin, was of the strictest sect of 
the papists. In an age of almost universal license, 
no blot has ever been found upon his moral purity. 
He maintained several priests at Chatillon ; he also 
established free schools for the education of youth. 
Upon joining the reformers he continued the same 
acts, simply substituting Protestant preachers for 
the former monks.t Girt with his conscience and 
armed with his principles, he would have braved 
the universe. When a little later he did, after long 
pause, declare his adherence to the Reformation, 
there was no more vacillation, no more timidity, no 
more doubt ; not D'Andelot himself was more open 
and inflexible. 

" Coligny and D'Andelot," says their biographer 
Brantome, " were both endowed with such imper- 
turbable equanimity and coolness, that it was quite 
impossible to put them in a passion, and their coun- 
tenances never betrayed their secret thoughts and 
inward emotions.":): 

So admirable in their mental structure and in 
their moral nature were these brothers, the first 
political leaders of Latin Protestantism ; their brill- 
iant genius, their constancy, their unwearied zeal, 
their unflagging faith, made them the idols of the 
French reformers. 



* Vie de Coligny, p. 192. 

t Brantome, 0., vol. 7, p. 163. 



t Ibid., p. 74. 



208 



THE HUGUENOTS 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

MUTATION. 

In the field of persecution, Henry II. walked in 
the footsteps of Francis I. He regarded the extir- 
pation of heresy and the convention of costly and 
knight-errant tournaments as the double mission of 
his kingly career.* For the accomplishment of the 
one, he squandered the blood, the treasure, and the 
honor of France ; in the pursuit of the other, he lost 
his life, dying " as the fool dieth." 

That he might secure leisure for the gratifica- 
tion of his bias for pageants and autos da fe, a hol- 
low truce of five years' duration was patched up 
between France and Spain,t of which Henry could 
not say, as Francis I. did on the dismal day of Pa- 
via, " All is lost, save honor," for in this case honor 
went first. 

Just before the declaration of this truce, in 1556, 
Charles V. abdicated, after one of the most stormy, 
eventful, and checkered reigns in history. The self- 
deposed emperor retired into the monastery of St. 
Just, in Estremadura, where he spent his hours in 
vainly attempting to make a hundred clocks tick 
together,;}: precisely as he had endeavored to wind 

* Fra Paolo, Hist. Concile de Trente, p. 280. 

f Frost, Hist, of France. Robertson, Life of Charles Y. 

t Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, vol. 1. 



MUTATION. 



209 



up his subjects' consciences, and compel them to 
keep the time of the Vatican. 

During the war just ended with Spain, in which 
Henry had been the ally of Maurice of Saxony and 
Albert of Brandenburg, who led the armed Protes- 
tantism of Germany, the cardinal of Lorraine had 
advised the temporary cessation of the religious 
persecution in France, in order to present the sem- 
blance of consistency. 

Now the fires were once more lighted, Henry, 
to add dignity and importance to the executions, 
went in person to several of them. On one of these 
occasions he recognized an old domestic dying in 
the flames ; his follower recognized him, and called 
out faintly from within the fire, " Save me, my king!" 
and the monarch was seized with such horror that, 
turning on his heel, he instantly quitted the scene, 
to hide his agitation and remorse in the depths of 
the Louvre.* 

But the reformers were not to be deterred 
from following the dictates of conscience. It was 
in vain that funeral piles were kindled in every 
town in France. The danger of martyrdom, while 
it excited every generous feeling in the hearts, of 
the devout, and fanned enthusiasm to a white heat, 
also became a preventive to desertion. It confirmed 
the wavering. Many who would have acknowledged 
themselves persuaded in a theological dispute, 
would avoid the disgrace of yielding through dread 
of so unsatisfactory a proselyter as the fire* 

* D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 1, p. 75. Browning, p. 27. 



210 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



In May, 1557, an event occurred which showed 
that the reformers were numerous even in Paris 
itself. Five hundred of them one night were assem- 
bled to celebrate the Lord's supper in a house in 
the Rue St. Jacques, opposite the College Plessis. 
The opportunity for a tumult was too good to be 
lost. The populace, instigated, by the monks, gath- 
ered about the house, but no attempt was made to 
interrupt the service. When the assembly was dis- 
missed, however, the reformers were assailed not 
only with threats and abuse, but with stones and 
rapiers. The darkness of the night would have 
enabled most of them to have escaped, had not lan- 
terns been placed in the windows of the adjacent 
dwellings to illuminate the street.* 

Many were murdered; some few who had arms 
cut their way through the mob ; but the old men, 
the women, and the children were left to massacre. 
In the midst of the orgie, some soldiers charged and 
dispersed the rioters ; and while the guilty escaped, 
the innocent reformers, to the number of two hun- 
dred, were taken into custody.t 

Proceedings were immediately commenced 
against these, notwithstanding the fact that among 
them were many persons of distinguished family 
connections. $ The cardinal of Lorraine demanded 
that they should all be condemned to the fire; but 
the parliament had not so capacious a maw : they 
did not require a hecatomb of victims to glut their 

* De Thou, liv. 19. f Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 76. 

t Browning, p. 31. Duncan, p. 11. 



MUTATION. 



211 



appetite ; and after a long process, five of the Prot- 
estants were sentenced to the flames.* 

Fortunately for the others, Henry required some 
levies in Switzerland and Germany; the elector-pal- 
atine solicited the enlargement of these prisoners ; 
and as it would have been inconvenient for the king 
to lose the friendship of that prince, he reluctantly 
ordered them to be treated with moderation, to the 
infinite regret of the pontiff Paul IT., who loudly 
complained in the consistory. t 

While Henry was at war with Charles T., a de- 
cree, called the edict of Chateaubriand, was passed, 
which placed the reformers under the secular juris- 
diction. { But now the cardinal of Lorraine was 
desirous of devising some method of defeating that 
edict, which served as a shield to the evangeli- 
cals. Accordingly he advised the appointment of 
an inquisitor of the faith in France, who should 
have the power to cite, interrogate, and punish sus- 
pected persons, and who should likewise possess, 
through a bureau of trained spies, mischievous and 
ubiquitous, the means of penetrating into the pri- 
vacy of families, and of exercising an unsleeping 
surveillance over the whole kingdom, from the 
mountains to the sea.§ 

The pontiff greedily seized on the idea, and 

* Browning, p. 31. Duncan, p. 11. Feliberu, vol. 11, p. 1060. 
They were burned in Sept., 1557. 

f Era Paolo, Hist, du Concile de Trente, p. 338. Soulier, Hist, 
du Calvinisme, vol. 2, p. 15. Browning, p. 31. 

X De Thou. This was dated June 27, 1551. 

§ Davila. Beza, Hist. Eccles. 



212 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



appointed Matthew Oni, a Dominican monk, to 
that hateful office.* The king and his council ap- 
proved this investiture of a foreigner with absolute 
power within the borders of his kingdom ; but the 
parliament, somewhat leavened with the progres- 
sive ideas, and not wholly infatuated, ventured to 
remonstrate. "Sire," said Sequier, one of the 
presidents of the parliaments, " we abhor the estab- 
lishment of this tribunal of blood, where secret accu- 
sation takes the place of proof, where the accused 
is deprived of every means of defence, and where 
no judicial form is respected. Begin, sire, by pro- 
curing for the nation an edict which will not cover 
France with funeral piles, which will not be wetted 
either by the tears or the blood of your loyal sub- 
jects. At a distance, sire, from your presence, 
bowed down under the pressure of rural labor, or 
absorbed in the exercise of the arts or of trade, the 
people are ignorant of what is preparing against 
them ; they do not suspect that it is proposed to 
separate them from your throne by the interven- 
tion of an irresponsible foreign tribunal, which 
shall wreak its unchallengeable will upon them, and 
deprive them of their natural guardian. It is for 
them and in their name that we now present our 
humble remonstrances, nay, our ardent supplica- 
tions. 

" As for you, sirs," continued the orator, turn- 
ing towards the sycophantic crowd of counsellors 
and ministers who surrounded the king, " you who 
e Davila. Beza, Hist. Eccles. 



MUTATION. 



213 



so tranquilly hear me, and secure in the royal favor 
imagine that this affair does not concern you, learn 
that it is fit that you divest yourselves of that fool- 
ish notion. So long as you enjoy the king's friend- 
ship, you wisely make the most of your time — 't is 
your harvest ; benefits and kindnesses are showered 
upon you without stint, and it enters into the mind 
of no one to attack you. But the more you are ele- 
vated, the nearer you are to the thunderbolt; one 
must be a stranger to the history of courts who 
does not know the trivialities which often precipi- 
tate disgrace. 

"Under the present regime, even should that 
misfortune befall you, you could now retire with 
that fortune which would in a measure console you 
for your fall. But dating from the registration of 
I his edict, your condition would cease to be the 
same. Mark ! You will have for successors men 
poor and hungry, who, not knowing how long they 
may remain in office, will burn with a desire to 
enrich themselves at once and by whatever means. 
They will find a wonderful facility in doing so; for, 
certain of obtaining your confiscation of the king, 
it will only be necessary to bribe an inquisitor and 
two witnesses. Then, though you may be saints, 
you will burn as heretics."* 

• This argumentum ad hominem of the subtle par- 

* Gamier, Hist, de France, vol. 14, p. 28. Pierre Sequier, 
born 1504, died 1580. His speeches, which are remarkable foi 
their conrage and boldness, have been collected and printed. The 
one from which this extract is taken is one of the finest of the 
series. 



214 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



liamentary orator, produced a profound impression 
upon the council, and also on the king, who was so 
affected that he remitted the consideration of the 
question to another day.* 

Apropos of this edict, it was just before the 
wily cardinal of Lorraine conceived his notable 
scheme for the extirpation of heresy, that the soci- 
ety of the Jesuits, the pests of modern Europe, 
commenced their machinations, under the protec- 
tion of this same prelate.* So early as 1550, the 
cardinal procured from Henry II. letters patent, by 
which they were permitted to build an establish- 
ment in Paris. t 

The order of the Jesuits owed its origin to the 
efforts of a fanatic Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, who, 
"poor, obscure, without a patron, without recom- 
mendations, entered that city — where now two tem- 
ples, rich with paintings and many colored marbles, 
commemorate his great services to his church; 
where his form stands sculptured in massive silver ; 
where his bones, enshrined amid jewels, are placed 
beneath the altar — and by his activity and zeal 
launched his protean propaganda." % 

"With what vehemence, with what unscrupulous 
policy, with what forgetfulness of the dearest pri- 
vate ties, with what intense and stubborn devotion 
to a single end, with what laxity and versatility in 
the choice of means, the Jesuits fought the battles 
of their church, is written on every page of the 

* Browning, p. 30. f Duncan, p. 10 

X Macanley, Essay on Ranke's Hist, of the Popes. 



MUTATION. 



215 



annals of Europe during several generations. In 
c tlie order of Jesus ' was concentrated the quintes- 
sence of the Romish spirit, and its history is the 
history of the papal reaction against Luther. The 
order possessed itself of all the strong-holds which 
command the public mind — of the pulpit, of the 
press, of the confessional, of the academies. It 
was into the ears of the Jesuit that the powerful, 
the noble, the wretched, and the beautiful breathed 
the secret history of their lives. It was at the feet 
of the Jesuit that the youth of the higher and 
middle and lower classes were brought up, from 
the first rudiments to the courses of rhetoric and 
philosophy."* 

Such was the order which, dominant in the south 
of Europe, now sued for admission into France. 
At the first their welcome was not hearty. 

"When Henry's letters-patent were presented to 
the parliament for registry, the procureur-general 
strongly opposed their reception, and the act of 
legalization was suspended in consequence of his 
remonstrances. But in 1552, the Jesuits obtained 
new letters-patent, which contained a peremptory 
order for their registration. The procureur-gen- 
eral, however, persisted in his opposition, and for 
two years more the question hung undecided. 
Finally, on the 3d of August, 1554, the parliament 
decreed that, before the matter was definitely de- 
cided, the letters of the king and the papal bulls 
which the Jesuits had obtained, should be referred 
* Macauley, Essay on Ranke's Hist, of the Popes. 



216 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



to the bishop of Paris and the clean of the Sor- 
bonne Faculty of Theology. * 

The bishop, whose name was Eustace de Bellay, 
did not hesitate to declare " that the bulls of Paul 
III. and of Julius III. contained several articles 
which were contrary to reason, and which could 
not be tolerated or received in the Christian relig- 
ion ; that those in whose favor they were issued, by 
arrogating to themselves the title of ' Company of 
Jesus, 5 which could only be applied with propriety 
to the universal church, of which Christ was the 
head, appeared to desire to constitute themselves 
that church; moreover, as the principal object they 
proposed to themselves was the conversion of the 
Mohammedans, it would be better to give them a 
house on the frontier of the Ottoman empire, than 
in Paris, which was so distant from Constantino- 
ple.'^ 

The answer of the Sorbonne was not more favor- 
able. Feeling persuaded of their ability to cope 
singly with heresy, and 

too fond to rule alone," 

able to 

"Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne, "f 

that body, by a unanimous vote, declared the new 
society " dangerous to the holy faith, calculated to 
disturb the peace of the church, and more fitted to 
destroy than to edify."§ 

* Duncan, p. 10. f Ibid, 

f Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Dyce's ed., vol. 3, p. 9. 
§ Duncan, p. 11. 



MUTATION. 



217 



These two replies annihilated the hopes of the 
Jesuits during the reign of Henry II. ; but they 
plotted in the dark, and bided their time. 

Meantime the truce with Spain had been bro- 
ken; both kingdoms had placed large armies in 
the field, and the constable, Montmorenci, after 
sacking the town of Sens, and pillaging Artois, 
came upon the Spaniards before St. Quintan,* 
which place, the admiral Ooligny, one of the ablest 
captains of the age, held for France. 

St. Quintin had been vigorously besieged, and 
though it was but indifferently strong, the gallant 
admiral had kept it for his king, while Montmo- 
renci was coming to succor him. 

On the 10th of August, 1557, the constable 
reached St. Quintin, and attacking the enemy with 
Quixotic indiscretion, suffered a disastrous defeat, 
in which he was himself captured. t 

In consequence of Montmorenci's captivity, the 
cardinal of Lorraine became the administrator of 
the government, and the family of Guise employed 
their opportunity in securing the hand of the Dau- 
phin for their; niece Mary, queen of Scots,J and 
in promoting their adherents to all the influential 
offices of the court, the capital, and the provin- 
ces.! 

• But upon this occasion the Guises' lease of 
pcwer was not of long duration. Philip II., tired 
of the French war, and familiar with Henry's friend- 

* De Thou, Jiv. 18. Motley, Kise of the Dutch Kef., vol. 1. 
f Ibid. t Browning, p. 32. § Duncan, p. 21. 

Huguenots. 



218 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ship for Montmorenci, played upon these chords a 
tune of reconciliation with his " dear brother of 
France;" and after several ineffectual attempts, 
the treaty of Chateau Cambrisis was signed on the 
3d of April, 1559.* 

Montmorenci immediately resumed his ministe- 
rial functions, and the humiliated Guises were com- 
pletely stripped of their snug stations and usurped 
honors. The cardinal of Lorraine, however, who 
had contrived to render himself necessary to the 
king, remained near his person, like an evil genius, 
ever prompting the impressible monarch to wick- 
ed and arbitrary acts.t 

The cardinal's next act was atrocious. By the 
treaty of Chateau Cambrisis, it had been stipulated 
that Henry's daughter Elizabeth should marry the 
king of Spain, t The city was now crowded with 
illustrious Spaniards who had come to witness the 
marriage ceremony, and to accompany the young 
queen to Madrid. Henry's penchant for magnifi- 
cent follies and splendid fetes led him to celebrate 
the occasion with unusual pomp, and to prepare 
the lists of endless tournaments. 

The bias of several prominent members of the 
parliament towards heresy was well known; and 
the independent and liberal action of the legisla- 
ture on several recent occasions, had disgusted the 
bigoted cardinal and provoked the king. 

Lorraine determined to make use of the Span- 

* Vie de Cidlon, vol. 1, p. 39. 

f Browning, p. 33. % Ibid. 



MUTATION. 



219 



isli marriage to wreak liis vengeance upon the ob- 
noxious legislators. 

One day lie entered Henry's cabinet, and deliv- 
ered this infamous harangue : " Sire, although it 
would serve for nothing more than to show the 
king of Spain that you are firm in the faith, and 
that you will not suffer any thing in your kingdom 
wdiich will disparage your excellent title of most 
Christian king, still you ought to proceed about it 
boldly, and with great courage. You must gratify 
all these grandees of Spain, who have accompanied 
the duke of Alva for the solemnity and honor of 
their sovereign's marriage with your daughter, by 
ordering half a dozen councillors of the parliament 
to be burned in the public square as Lutheran her- 
etics, which indeed they are. By so doing w r e shall 
preserve the bulk of the legislature ; but if you do 
not take these measures, the whole court will be 
infected and contaminated withheresv, even to the 
clerks, attorneys, and tipstaves."* 

The cardinal then, with the craft of those Jesu- 
its whom he befriended, persuaded the king to go 
to the legislative chamber as if to consult his coun- 
sellors on the measures to be taken for the sup- 
pression of heresy, but really to observe the re- 
sponses of the members of the parliament, and if 
possible to ascertain their secret sentiments, by 
submitting to their frank consideration and judg- 
ment some project which should draw from them 
an avowal of their own hereof 

* Yielleyille, liv. 7, c. 24. f Ibid. Frowning, p. 34. 



220 THE HUGUENOTS. 



Montmorenci, instead of dissuading Henry from 
such black treachery, approved it in open council.* 
Vieilleville alone, who records the incident, raised 
his voice against it, as degrading to the royal dig- 
nity, affirming that "he was about to take upon 
himself the office of an inquisitor, and that the car- 
dinal's proposal would entirely destroy the joyous 
feeling of the public. "t 

But the cardinal's advice prevailed. Henry 
convoked the Parliament, and in a few well-dis- 
guised and gracious words, begged the advice of 
his counsellors upon the best means for the pa- 
cification of the kingdom. The more wary judg- 
es confined their remarks to general and vague 
expressions, believing that the use of language 
was to disguise one's meaning, as one of their 
later countrymen, the famous Talleyrand, phras- 
ed it. 

Some were less cautious, or more honest. "Let 
us begin," said Louis Faur, "by examining who 
the real author of our troubles is, lest the same 
answer should be made to us which Elijah made to 
Ahab, £ It is thou that troublest Israel,'" and a 
look at Cardinal Lorraine directed the application 
to him. The celebrated Anne Du Bourg, the son 
of an illustrious family in Auvergne, and nephew 
of the chancellor of France, next spoke. He sur- 
prised his hearers by the boldness of his speech, 
enlarging upon the cruelties heaped upon the re- 
formers, and remarked with emphasis, " While men 
* Vieilleville, liv. 7, c. 24. Browning, p. 34. f Ibid. 



MUTATION. 



221 



are conducted to the stake for the sole crime of 
praying for their prince, a shameful license encour- 
ages and multiplies blasphemies, perjuries, debauch- 
eries, and adulteries."^ 

The courtiers trembled, for the}' considered this 
sentence as intended for the king and the duchess 
de Valentinois.t 

When Du Bourg resumed his seat, Henry rose 
in a great passion, and gave vent to a torrent of 
reproaches against the moderate party, and espec- 
ially against those who, enamoured of the beauty 
of plain speech, had boldly avowed their senti- 
ments.^ 

On quitting the chamber, he made a sign to 
Count Montgomery, captain of his Scotch guard, 
who had surrounded the convent of the Augustines, 
where the Parliament was then sitting, with his 
men-at-arms. A fierce look directed towards Faur, 
Du Bourg, and three others, gave sufficient instruc- 
tions for him. They were arrested in the midst of 
a parliamentary session, and immediately thrown 
into a dungeon — a high-handed violation of public 
law and official etiquette, the mere attempt at which, 
in the succeeding century, cost an English king his 
head. 

Charges were instantly huddled up against the 
five counsellors, the trials were pushed on with inde- 
cent haste, and so hot was the anger of the king, 

* D'Aubigne, vol. 1, p. 84. De Thou, liv. 22. 
t Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 77. 

t Ibid. D'Anbigne. Falibien, vol. 2, p. 1036. 



222 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



that " he expressed a desire to see Du Bourg burned 
before his own eyes."" 

But before this brutal wish could be gratified, 
Henry's own life was abridged by violence; and 
singularly enough too, he was doomed to die by the 
blundering lance of that same Montgomery whom 
he had just employed in outraging the higher maj- 
esty of the Parliament, in the very sanctuary of jus- 
tice. 

At a tournament held in the Faubourg St. An- 
toine, on the 27th of June, 1559, the last of a suc- 
cession of jousts which Henry meant should give 
eclat to his daughter's marriage, the king, after con- 
tending with and vanquishing several of his politic 
courtiers, elated by his success, challenged Count 
Montgomery to enter the lists with him. The count 
was reluctant to comply, but Henry would not ac- 
cept his refusal. Finally Montgomery entered the 
arena ; two fresh lances were given to the champi- 
ons ; the trumpets sounded the charge ; the knights 
met, with a terrific crash, in mid-career ; and when 
the dust rolled up, Henry was seen unhorsed, and 
with a portion of his captain's shattered lance pro- 
truding from his visor. The shiver pierced into 
his brain through the left eye ; and after lingering 
through eleven days, he expired on the 10th of July, 
1559, in the forty-first year of his age, and the 
twelfth of his reign. t 

* Hist, du Concile cle Trente. Vieiileville, vol. 4, p. 158. Dun- 
can, p. 12. 

f Brantoine, vol. 7, p. 46. Browning, p. 36. Duncan, p. 14. 



MUTATION. 



223 



If history lias not scourged the character of this 
puppet king so severely as it has those of his mon- 
ster brothers, Charles IX. and Henry III., it is not 
because he was less deserving of obloquy, but be- 
cause he was fortunate enough to cheat history by 
a death which struck him at the very moment when 
he had matured a plan for the extermination of 
French Protestantism.* Henry II. was as weak, 
as deceitful, and as execrable as any scion of the 
Valois line. Informers were encouraged by the 
prospect of reward to denounce the innocent ; a 
casual, an ambiguous phrase was a sufficient war- 
rant for arrest ; suspicion was equivalent to proof ; 
whoever sheltered a heretic was held to be a par- 
ticipater in his crime ; confidence between man and 
man was lost ; members of the same family dis- 
trusted each other ; the worst passions of human 
nature weue let loose by a bribe, and France be- 
came an extended dungeon. 

It was in the reign of Henry II. that the sou- 
briquet Huguenots began to be generally applied to 
the French reformers. Like the names "Puritan/ 5 
"Methodist," and "Abolitionist," this was origi- 
nally a term of reproach ; but the Protestants of 
France, like those of England and America, were 
wise enough to seize an epithet hurled at them as 
a missile, and wear it proudly as a jewel. In a 
few r years this designation completely superseded 
all others: "Protestant" and "evangelical" were 
swallowed up in it ; and Huguenots became the 

* Browning, p. 36. Duncan, p. 13. Brantome, vol. 7, p. 50. 



224 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



honorable and universal synonym of politico-eccle- 
siastical reform.* 

* The etymology of the word 11 Huguenot" has been the subject 
of much discussion. No less than ten different opinions as to its 
derivation have been more or less popular. 

The etymology most generally received is that which ascribes 
its origin to the word Eignot, derived from the German Eidgenos- 
sen, which means Confederate. A party thus designated existed at 
Geneva ; and it is probable that the French Protestants would 
receive a name so applicable to themselves. See Browning. Hist. 
Huguenots, Appendix. 

It is probable that the precise form Huguenot may be owing to 
the fact that an influential leader of the republican Protestants of 
Geneva was named Hugues. "In any case," says D'Aubigne, "it 
must be remembered that this soubriquet had a purely political 
meaning until after the Reformation — a meaning in no respect 
religious, and simply designating the friends of civil independence. 
Many years after, the enemies of the Protestants of France called 
them by this name, wishing to stigmatize them, and impute to 
them a foreign, republican, and heretical origin. Such is the true 
etymology of the word." D'Aubigne, Kef. in Calvin's Time, vol. 1, 
pp. 88, 89. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 



225 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE CONSPIRACY. 

With the death of Henry II. terminated a his- 
toric rivalry. Diana of Poitiers at length suc- 
cumbed to the subtleties of Catharine de ! Medici, 
who not only drove the courtesan from the court 
in ignominy, and confiscated her immense estates, 
but who actually appropriated the fair Diana's 
jewels.* 

The politics of the Louvre were once more rev- 
olutionized. Montmorenci, whom Catharine hated 
because he had coalesced with Henry's mistress, 
and put her authority under the ban, and whom 
the Guises intrigued to displace because he had 
deposed them and himself swayed the sceptre, was 
one morning politely advised by the boy king to 
quit Paris, and take the benefit of the air at his 
country-seat.t 

The Guises were reseated in power. The feeble 
hands of Francis II., who was but sixteen when he 
ascended the throne, on the 10th of July, 1559, and 
poor Mary Stuart, were not old or energetic enough 
to hold the reins of government. Their uncles of 
Guise and Lorraine were kind enough to perceive 
this, and to relieve their majesties of the cares and 
honors of the state. X 

* Davila, liv. 1. t Vie de Coligny, p. 92. 

I Brantome, vol. 9, pp. 469, 470. 

10* 



226 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



To be sure the witty Parisians were so unkind 
as to frame epigrams, and to assert that this phil- 
anthropic action of the bashful and modest house 
of Guise, whose probity was thus slurred, really held 
the king in duress* But when did a generous action 
ever fail to be misconstrued ? 

The naughty Huguenots took this view of the 
case ; and esteeming it to be their first duty as loyal 
subjects to emancipate their king, they immediately 
prepared to stereotype their opinion into action. 
The Huguenots caballed. The king's duress bred 
a conspiracy. But while the conspirators yet plot- 
ted in the dark with an immature programme, an- 
other auto da fe was kindled, which caused all 
France to growl ominously. 

Anne du Bourg had remained in prison since 
the death of Henry II. The cardinal of Lorraine, 
securely intrenched in power, and emboldened by 
success, ordered that noble counsellor's trial to pro- 
ceed. Du Bourg, though deserted by the craven 
parliament which had permitted itself to be dra- 
gooned into submission, defended himself with the 
utmost vigor and spirit : he challenged one of his 
judges, president Minard, his bitter personal ene- 
my; despite of which Minard took his seat on the 
judiciary bench, and presided at the trial. t 

Du Bourg could not resist the impulse to up- 
braid this French prototype of the English Jeffries ; 
and he concluded a scathing philippic by prophe- 
sy Brantome, vol. 7, p. 82. Davila, liv. 1. 
t Browning, r. 38. Mem. de Concle, vol. 1, p. 300. 



THE CONSPIKACY. 



227 



sying that tins base judge would soon be called to 
appear before a more awful bar, when lie would 
wish to be as guiltless as his prisoner then was 
known to be.* 

These words were quickly and strangely veri- 
fied. As Minard was returning home one evening 
from the court, he was assassinated. t This occur- 
red in the night of the 12th of December, 1559. On 
the morning of the 23d, Du Bourg, despite the her- 
culean efforts made by the Huguenots to save him, 
was led out to be executed. 

The counsellor's firm demeanor on reaching the 
fatal plaza, excited the sympathetic admiration of 
the hardened mob which haunted the gallows. 
Measures were taken to prevent his addressing 
them ; the executioner was ordered to gag him, 
should he attempt to speak. 

At the foot of the gibbet a crucifix was held be- 
fore his lips, but he .refused to kiss it ; after which 
he was immediately pulled up and strangled, amid 
shouts of Jesu Maria from the human tigers be- 
low. J 

His last words were a prayer ; " Father, aban- 
don me not ; neither will I abandon thee." 

" Thus," says a historian, " perished Anne Du 
Bourg, in his thirty-eighth year, a man of rare tal- 

* Tie de Coligny, p. 197. 

•f Browning, p. 38. Minard was killed by a Scotchman named 
Robert Stuart, a distant relative of Mary Stuart, who afterwards 
shot the Constable Montmorenci at the battle of St. Denis. 

t Mem. de Conde, vol. 1, p. 300. Browning, p. 38. 



228 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ents, and yet rarer integrity, loved, wept, and hon- 
ored even by many of those who did not share his 
faith." 

After hanging for some time, the body was cut 
down and burned, the ashes being scattered to the 
four winds.* 

As in the classic story of the Eoman Gracchi, 
so the martyred counsellor, mortally smitten, flung 
his dust towards heaven, calling the avenging God 
to witness ; and from that dust sprang ere long the 
embattled ranks of D'Andelot and De Coligny, 
eager to defend their faith and liberty. 

While this tragedy was being enacted, the con- 
spiracy of Ambois ripened. History has recorded 
few undertakings of a similar character in which 
the design was more extensive, the motives more 
just, the plan more skilful, the means more ade- 
quate, and the failure more miserable. 

The Jesuits, ever watchful to obtain a foothold 
in France, now that their protectors of the house of 
Guise were the arbiters of the kingdom, ventured 
to emerge from their holes, and, though denounced 
by the parliament, the bishop of the metropolis, 
and the Sorbonne, to sue for legal recognition. 
This, through the finesse of the cardinal of Lorraine, 
was at length accorded them, and the privy council 
distinctly declared that "the Jesuits claimed no 
privileges hostile to the episcopal supremacy, the 
authority of curates, colleges, or universities, or to 
the liberties of the Gallican church. "t 

* Duncan, p. 24. f Ibid., p. 25. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 



229 



The parliament, overawed by the execution of 
Du Bourg, and rilled with servile counsellors, did 
not venture to baulk the cardinal for a third time ; 
and after sprinkling rose-water, in the shape of 
explanatory articles, over the charter with dainty 
fingers, the Corps Legislatif and the bishops agreed 
to the act of incorporation,-' though an additional 
clause, which plainly indicated the distrust of the 
court itself, was appended ere the registration, 
which provided that " if, in the course of time, any 
thing should result prejudicial to the prerogative of 
the crown or the rights of the people, the constitu- 
tion of the Jesuits might be reformed. "t 

The legal recognition of this hateful tribunal 
filled the reformers with alarm, for they justly sus- 
pected that these mysterious and ubiquitous priests, 
who spun their webs in the dark, who invented 
every thing, who denied every thing, who even 
seized blank paper and, "after the manner of spi- 
ders, sucked heresy from it," would ally themselves 
with their patrons the princes of Lorraine, in a 
grand effort to annihilate the Huguenot idea. 

The alarm of the reformers ; the discontent of 
the nobility, excluded from all posts of trust, re- 
placed in office by the upstart retainers of the house 
of Guise ; Montmorenci, the king of Navarre, the 
prince of Conde, all disgusted by the haughty be- 
havior of the cardinal of Lorraine — these circum- 
stances seemed at once to warrant and to guarantee 
the success of an insurrection against the "hated 

* Duncan, p. 25, f Ibid., pp. 25, 26. 



230 THE HUGUENOTS. 

foreigners" who, through their niece, ruled the 
king.* 

The discontented nobles and the Huguenot pol- 
iticians at once formed a confederacy, the former 
to end the political usurpations of the Guises, the 
latter to protect their party against the repetition 
of those severities which were threatened by the 
ugly precedent of Du Bourg.t 

The conspirators held their first conversations at 
the castle of La Fert6, which was situated on the 
frontier of Picardy. The prince of Cond6 was unan- 
imously elected chief ; but he was not to be known 
as a participator in the plot until the decisive mo- 
ment came.J Conde accepted this position, annex- 
ing this reservation: " Providing nothing be done 
or attempted against God, the king, my brothers, 
or the state. "§ 

In the mean time a gentleman named La Eenau- 
die, of a noble family of Perigord, a Huguenot, was 
selected to be the nominal head of the conspiracy. jj 
La Eenaudie combined every quality requisite for 
the elaboration and direction of such a movement. 
Eloquent, energetic, persevering, intelligent, brave 
even to rashness,^ familiar, through a long resi- 
dence at Geneva, with those multitudinous religion- 
ists who had been expatriated for their faith, no 



* Vie de Coligny. f Duncan, p. 26. 

{ Vie de Coligny. Davila, liv. 1. De Thon, liv. 24. 
§ Veritable Inventoire de l'Histoire des Franc ais, par Jean de 
Serres, torn. 1, p. 681. Cited also in Duncan, p. 26. 

|| Brantome, vol. 7, p. 82. IF Davila, liv. 1. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 



231 



one could be better fitted to secure the cordial co- 
operation of the Huguenots. 

On the 1st of January, 1560, the confederates 
assembled in a ruined chateau in the outskirts of 
Nantes — attracted thither by the cloak to their 
movements which the vast concourse of people who 
then crowded the city to witness the holiday fetes 
would be — and here the final arrangements were 
made." 

When night had fallen, and the conspirators 
had all gathered at the rendezvous, La Eenaudie 
addressed them in a low but intensely earnest voice. 
In a few vivid sentences he painted the tyrannies 
of the house of Guise, dwelt with graphic rhetoric 
upon the injuries which they had entailed on France, 
affirmed his belief that the princes of Lorraine only 
waited for the death of the feeble and boyish king — 
who might die at any moment under their skilful 
nursing, as the orator darkly hinted — to usurp the 
sceptre of poor Francis II., and seat one of their 
own family upon the throne. " For my part," he 
continued, forgetting in his heat to observe that 
cautious monotone in which he had so far spoken, 
and rising in vehemence, " for my own part, I pro- 
test, I swear, I call God to witness, that I will never 
think or say or do any thing against the king, 
against the queen his mother, against the princes 
his brothers, against any of his blood ; but that I 
will defend to my latest breath the authority of the 
throne, the majesty of the laws, and the liberty of 

« De Thou, liv. 24, Browning, p. 40. Duncan, p. 29. 

i 



232 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



France against the hateful tyranny of foreign usurp- 
ers."* 

"We swear it !" echoed the band, bathed in the 
swarthy light of the stars, with upraised hands and 
uncovered heads. The tyranny of the Guises had 
excited such a feeling that no intervening clanger, 
not the dread of the block, nor the awful pangs of 
inquisitorial torture, could chill the ardor. All 
signed the oath, shook hands in unison, embraced 
each other weeping, and loaded with imprecations 
any wretch who should be perfidious enough to 
betray the plot. Just before the separation, the 
fifteenth of the following March, and Blois, were 
fixed on as the time and place for the execution of 
their programme. t 

Ten minutes later and the old chateau of N antes 
resumed its disturbed dreams; soon the conspira- 
tors were scattered to the four corners of France, 
each on his mission of mischief to tyrants. 

The purpose of the confederates was to possess 
themselves of the royal person, to arrest the princes 
of Lorraine, and to vest the administration of the 
government in the prince of Conde.^ There was 
no intention to injure the king, but simply to re- 
lease him from the duress of his uncles of Guise; 
and the distinct avowal of this principle won the 
confidence of all the loyal gentlemen in France.§ 

Francis II. was of a fragile and sickly constitu- 



° De Thou, liv. 24. f Davila, liv. 1. Browning, p. 40. 
X Tie de Coligny. Hist, du Tuinulte d'Amboise. Browning, 
p. 40. § Duncan, p. 27. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 



233 



tion; and since, in tlie spring of 1560, lie was a 
greater sufferer than usual, the court physicians 
prescribed a change of air and scene for the royal 
invalid. Accordingly the Guises transported him 
to the town of Blois, whose climate was mild and 
salubrious. 

It was at Blois then, where the court was yet 
sojourning, that the mine was to be sprung upon 
the Guises. 

For a time "all went merry as a marriage bell;" 
the confederates sailed over a placid and auspicious 
sea. Success seemed certain. The princes of Lor- 
raine, charmed by the syren songs of prosperous 
wickedness, lay lapped in supine security, when 
suddenly the overconfidence of the chief conspira- 
tor withdrew the veil of secrecy, and every thing 
was revealed.* 

La Benaudie quitted the rendezvous at Nantes 
for Paris, where he was to station himself and di- 
rect the plot. 

He lodged in the house of an old friend, Ava- 
nelles, a lawyer, who, suspecting mischief from the 
vast number of persons who called upon his com- 
paratively uninfluential guest, mentioned his suspi- 
cions to La Benaudie. That gentleman very indis- 
creetly acknowledged the existence of the conspir- 
acy.f 

The meddlesome and perfidious attorney pro- 
fessed to be well pleased with the plan and pur- 

° Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 2-1 Browning, p. 41. 

f Hist, du Tunmlte d'Amboise. Vie de Coligny. Davila, etc. 



234 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



pose of the intrigue, and after sucking its minutiae 
from his overconficling friend, he hastened to the 
metropolitan residence of the Guises, and unfolded 
the whole plot to the cardinal's secretary, who in- 
stantly posted Avanelles off to Blois to apprize the 
court of the volcano upon which it trembled.* 

The messenger arrived travel-stained and weary, 
and his interview with Francis duke of Guise speed- 
ily interrupted the frivolous festivities with which 
his ambitious relatives amused the attention of the 
king. 

Francis, unaware of the existence both of Ava- 
nelles and his news, was strolling in the meadows of 
Blois, while the agitated Guises interrogated the 
volunteer attorney. He found his principal solace 
and amusement in the company of his beautiful and 
at that time innocent young queen, Mary Stuart. 
Her harp often soothed the painful restlessness 
engendered by disease ; and though flattered and 
worshipped and caressed wherever she appeared, 
though walking upon roses, she really seemed de- 
voted to her royal husband. t 

. The hair of the girlish queen was singularly 
beautiful, and curled in natural ringlets. It w T as 
then a custom to wear low skull-caps; these, as a 
matter of fashion, were considered regal; but Fran- 
cis was so proud of his pet's head that Mary threw 
them off. The king delighted to hear the tones of her 
voice in singing, in speaking, in reading ; and often, 

* Esprit de la Ligne, liv. 1, p. 39. Davila, liv. 1. 

f Huguenots in France and Amer ; Cambridge, 1843, v. 1, p. 55. 



THE CONSPIKACY. 



235 



when sleep fled from his weary pillow, Mary would 
patiently lean over him, and lure the truant back 
by low, sweet chants, or by the touching music of 
her own clear Scottish ballads.* 

This was the queen who was, in later and more 
dismal years, arraigned for the murder of Darnley, 
her own husband. 

She may have been guilty, for who can spell the 
riddle of corrupting circumstances? Early sepa- 
rated from her mother, trained at a licentious court 
by ambitious uncles, that firm, unyielding principle, 
that elevation of character which is developed and 
strengthened by judicious education, could hardly 
have been acquired. Instigated by* hatred, beck- 
oned on by passion, poor Mary may have erred 
most sadly in the melancholy hours of her later 
career ; but now her generous and gentle nature 
still controlled her. 

On the morning of Avanelles' advent, Francis 
and Mary, together as usual, were in the fields — 
pausing here on an eminence which commanded a 
wide prospect, there by the side of the magnificent 
Loire, and wiling away the hours in sweet converse. 
Francis, looking forward to a life of regal splendor, 
expressed an earnest desire for the time to come 
when, unfretted by his uncles, he might govern his 
own empire. Mary chatted of her native land, of 
the heath-covered mountains of Scotland, and many 
a quaint legend gathered from the superstitious 
gossip of her attendants. 

9 Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1, p. 56. 



233 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Suddenly the duke of Guise joined them. 

"A fair morrow," said he, "for the hopes of 
France. What says my royal cousin, what says 
his consort, to a hunting gallop to-day?" 

A ready acquiescence was given ; and returning 
to the castle of Blois, where Louis XL had been 
born, the court-yard was speedily filled with hounds 
and steeds, and ere long the merry party w r ere fly- 
ing over the country at great speed. 

When the wails of Blois had been left far behind, 
Guise reigned up beside Francis, and informed him 
of the discovered plot, and told him that the hunt- 
ing party was only a pretence for removing him 
from an unfortified town to the stronger protection 
of the Amboise donjon. 

Francis was displeased that duplicity had been 
used, and turning towards his guardian he said 
pointedly, " It is so difficult now to distinguish 
friends from enemies, that perhaps it had been 
better for us to remain at Blois." 

The duke replied that " he had acted from the 
truest motives of tenderness, fearing that any un- 
common agitation might injure him in his present 
feeble and broken health." 

Francis made no further objection to the jour- 
ney, but contented himself with saying sadly, " What 
can be more injurious or painful than to see one's 
self an object of party hatred and contention?"* 

The princes of Lorraine were now in possession 
of the chief features of the plot to unseat them from 

* Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1, pp. 59, 60. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 



237 



the government. They also knew the names of a 
number of the actors in the emeute. Beyond this 
all was shadowy. Suspicion began where know- 
ledge ended. Coligny and D'Andelot were sup- 
posed to be implicated; and though Brantome dis- 
tinctly declares that the admiral had no part in the 
conspiracy,"* they were summoned to present them- 
selves before the king at the earliest moment. Both 
hastened to comply with this requisition ; and upon 
being introduced into the queen mother's chamber, 
Coligny spoke warmly against the bad administra- 
tion of affairs, pleaded the cause of the Huguenots, 
and recommended that the penal statutes against 
them be expunged from the judicial code.f 

The chancellor, Olivier, and the moderates of 
the council, seconded this bold appeal, which was 
finally embodied in an edict, and published on the 
12th of March, 1560. * The edict appeared too late 
to strangle the conspiracy. The outbreak was to 
occur upon the sixteenth instant ; the time had 
been changed from the fifteenth by the removal to 
Amboise.§ 

Every thing now looked as black for success as 
before La Benaudie's admission to the recreant Av- 
anelles the auspices had appeared bright. 

Nevertheless Cond6, no whit discouraged, went 
boldly to Amboise, and picking out a band of reso- 

* Brantome, voL 7, p. 168. Browning, p. ±0. 

\ D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 1, p. 93. 

X Ibid. Browning, p. 41. 

§ Mem. cle Conde, vol. 1, p. 310. 



238 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



lute men-at-arms from the body of his retainers, 
introduced them as his body-guard into the donjon 
walls. 

But the Guises, aware of the plan of attack, 
took every precaution, filled the tower with their 
adherents, and posted the Chatillons and Conde 
in conspicuous places, and surrounded them with 
confidential persons who were pledged to prevent 
their joining the assailants.* 

Forewarned was forearmed; and when the Hu- 
guenots attacked Amboise, they were repulsed with 
great slaughter. La Eenaudie rallied the fugitives, 
who returned gallantly to the charge; but their 
chief, surrounded by a party of his foes, after slay- 
ing a number of his assailants, was struck from his 
saddle dead by a bullet fired from a distance. The 
confederates then scattered in all directions. The 
pursuit was pressed with vindictive fierceness, and 
the body of La Kenaudie was placed on a gibbet with 
the inscription, " Chief of the Kebels."t 

During the battle, the duke of Nemours recog- 
nized at the head of a Huguenot squadron a gentle- 
man named Castelnau, for whom he entertained a 
warm friendship. He reined in his horse, and asked 
the Calvinist cavalier why he had taken arms against 
the king. " Our intention," was the reply, " is not 
to war against the king, .but to expel the tyrant 
Guises from authority." 

" If that be the case," said Nemours, " sheath 

* Davila, liv. 1. Browning, -p. 41. 

x Ibid. De Thou, liv. 24. Browning. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 



239 



your sword, and I promise you on my honor that 
you shall speak to the king, and I pledge, myself for 
your safe return/ 5 Castelnau accepted these terms, 
and Nemours reduced his engagement to writing, 
and signed it ; on which his late foeman followed 
him to Amboise. 

Castelnau was seized upon his entrance into the 
town, put into irons, and despite Nemour's urgent 
remonstrances, he was sentenced to death, Guise 
insisting that Nemours had no authority to under- 
take to do what he had written and sworn to do. 

On this proceeding Yieilleville makes this com- 
ment : " This caused Nemours great uneasiness and 
vexation on account of las signature : for had he only 
passed his word, he would have denied it, and given 
the lie to any man who should charge him with hav- 
ing plighted it, so valiant and generous was this no- 
Memcwi." "A remarkable instance/'' observes An- 
quetil, "of the point of honor badly understood, 
which fears a crime less than the proof. 55 "* 

The Guises triumphed. They revoked the edict 
obtained by Coligny, arrested the prince of Conde, 
commanded that no quarter should be given the 
insurgents, and hung their prisoners on a gallows 
erected in the Amboise square. Those who escaped 
this death were condemned, without trial, to be tied 
hand and foot, and thrown into the Loire. t 

Many of the confederates were racked, and espe- 
cially La Bique, La Renaudie\s secretary, the object 

* Duncan, p. 32. Anquetil. Esprit tie la Ligue. 

f Davila, Duncan. Browning, Vie de Coligny. De Thou. 



240 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



of the ministers being to secure some testimony 
which should implicate Cond6, or at least justify his 
arrest. They failed on both points. Only one per- 
son was found who implicated the prince, and he 
spoke only from report, while La Bique doggedly 
refused to give any specific information, affirming 
that La Benaudie kept his own secrets, and only 
entrusted him with general correspondence.* 

Conde, on his part, was indignant. He con- 
cluded a long speech to the king's council in these 
words : " If any man has the audacity to affirm that 
I have instigated a revolt against the sacred person 
of the king, I renounce the privilege of my rank, 
and am. willing to attest my innocence by single 
combat."t 

Then occurred a notable instance of hypocrit- 
ical finesse. The duke of Guise, the secret author 
of the arrest, rose, and unmindful of the evident 
application of Conde's words to himself, said with 
apparent heat, "And I will not suffer so great a 
prince to be accused of so black a crime, and en- 
treat you to accept me as your second.''^ 

Thus ended the conspiracy of Amboise with a 
liberation — Guise being as convinced of the treach- 
ery of the prince, as Cond6 was sensible of the du- 
plicity of the duke. 

" The prince of Cond6 was liberated," says an 
old contemporaneous historian, "in the hope that 

* Browning, p. 42. Duncan, p. 32. Vie de Coligny, p. 208. 
f Mem. de Cohde, p. 400. Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 24. 
t Ibid. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 



241 



the apparent confidence thus placed in his loyalty 
might throw the king of Navarre, the Constable, 
D'Anclelot, and the vidame* of Chartres off their 
guard, and thus enable the Guises to seize their 
persons ; for they feared to put Conde to death, 
and leave so many of his friends alive to avenge 
him. Past examples had taught them that it is in 
vain to cut down the body of a tree, how high and 
lofty soever, if there be any quick roots left, which 
may shoot forth new sprouts. t 

* A vidame was a person who held lands under a bishop, on 
condition of defending the temporal interests of the see. Brown- 
ing, p. 37, note. Francis de Vendime, vidame of Chartres, was 
a noble who had recently joined the Huguenots. 

f Da vila, liv. 1. 



Huguenots 



11 



242 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAP TEE XVIII. 

ALMOST A TRAGEDY. 

Aftee their fierce STippression of the Amboise 
conspiracy, the Guises returned to Fontainebleau 
with the court in their pocket. Meantime France 
wailed under a grinding tyranny which could no 
longer be endured. Even the just choked emeute 
was not able with all its blood to stifle the agonized 
cry for relief. Something must be done; and it 
w T as determined to convene an assembly of the No- 
tables, without reference to party or creed, for the 
investigation of the existing evils : all proved griev- 
ances were to be remedied — such was the burden 
of the Guises' syren song.* 

The Montmorencis and the Chatillons attended ; 
but fearful of being entrapped, they were accompa- 
nied by a long train of mailed cavaliers, the escort 
of the old constable alone numbering eight hundred 
men-at-arms.f 

The sky brightened for a moment. Chancellor 
Olivier, a statesman of moderate views, but weak 
and yielding, was so affected by the brutal policy 
of the princes of Lorraine, that just as the conspir- 
acy of Amboise was definitively quelled, he died:}, of 

* Brantome, vol. 7, p. 103, Davila, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 25. 
t Vie de Coligny, p. 213. Duncan, p. 34. 
t March 30, 1560. 



ALMOST A TEAGEDY. 



243 



grief at the holocaust of immolated victims. It is 
related of him, that when the cardinal of Lorraine 
called on him just before his decease, he turned his 
face to the wall, and refused to see him, saying, "I 
will look no more upon his face, for he is the ac- 
cursed cardinal who is the cause of all the condem- 
nations."* 

Olivier was succeeded in the chancellorship by 
Michael l'Hopital, a lawyer of distinguished fame, 
whom Brantome calls a second Cato,t who did his 
utmost to inaugurate a reign of peace, and whose 
memory France is bound to revere as the active, 
unwearied friend of tolerant politics. 

The king of Navarre and Conde had been ur- 
gently summoned to attend the convention ; but 
their wiser partisans, familiar with the wily char- 
acter and deadly rancor of the Guises, advised them 
to absent themselves^ and they followed this pru- 
dent counsel. 

The debates at Fontainebleau were long and 
animated. Coligny on his knees presented to Fran- 
cis a petition from the Huguenots. The king handed 
it to his secretary L'Aubespine to read. He com- 
menced : " A request of the people who address 
their prayers to God, according to the true rule of 
piety;" and when he had gotten thus far, he was 
interrupted by the clamors of the Guises' adhe- 
rents. § Francis commanded silence; and the sec- 



s Vieilleville, vol. 4, p. 193. Browning, p. 43. 

f Brantome, vol. 7, p. 91. t Browning. Duncan. 

§ Vie de Coligny. p. 213. 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



retary resumed reading the memorial, which con- 
tained a prayer that the prevalent persecutions for 
conscience' sake might cease ; it showed also that 
those who were nicknamed heretics were quite 
ready to abide by the declarations of Scripture, 
asking only to be convicted of error from the Bible; 
that the pope was not a fit person to decide such 
matters, since his position as the leader of the hosts 
of error made him necessarily more partial than 
just; and the paper concluded by calling upon the 
king himself to arbitrate.* 

When L'Aubespine had finished, the cardinal 
took the floor, and opening the flood-gates of his 
wrathful bitterness, poured forth a torrent of vitu- 
perative epithets. "The docility, the meekness," 
he said, "of these perfect Christians, these new evan- 
gelicals, might be judged by the flood of libels lev- 
elled at himself ; that, for his own part, having col- 
lected no less than twenty-two scandalous writings 
against his single self, he carefully preserved them 
as badges of honor." He added, that " though he 
pitied the ignorant, who were misled, extreme 
measures ought to be adopted against those 
who carried arms without the permission of the 
king."t 

Coligny, in his reply, said that " his voice was 
that of fifty thousand Huguenots." " "Well then," 
retorted the duke of Guise with bitter emphasis, "I 

Vie de Coligny, p. 213. De Thou, liv. 25. Browning, 

p. 44. 

f Davila, liv. 2. Pasquier, vol. 11, p. 80. 



ALMOST A TKAGEDY. 



245 



will break their heads with a hundred thousand 
papists whom I will lead against them."* 

This verbal tilt is said to have been the begin- 
ning of the mortal feud between the duke of Guise 
and the admiral, who had heretofore been warm 
personal friendsf — a hatred never appeased. Crim- 
ination and recrimination succeeded, mutual defi- 
ances were haughtily exchanged, and amid great 
confusion the conference was adjourned, and the 
convocation of the states-general w r as decided upon, 
to whom all the political and religious points of 
controversy w r ere referred.J 

While this rude blast was rushing over France, 
and roaring in the antique galleries of lordly pal- 
aces, the still small voice of the Word was making 
its way- into the homes of praying men. In private 
chambers, in the lecture-rooms and refectories, stu- 
dents, and even masters of arts, w r ere to be seen 
reading the Latin Testament, Erasmus' Greek ver- 
sion, and even the Bible in French. Animated 
groups were discussing the rationale of the Refor- 
mation. " When Christ came on earth," S£tid some, 
"he gave the word; and when he ascended up into 
heaven, he gave the Holy Spirit. These are the 
two forces which created the church, and these are 
the forces which must regenerate it." "No," re- 

Davila, liv. 2. Pasquier, vol. 11, p. 80. Brantonie, vol. 8, 

p. 70. 

f Browning, p. 44. Duncan, p. 18. Yie de Coligny, p. 220. 
% D'Aubigne', Hist. Universelle, vol. 1, p. 97. Duncan, p. 34. 
Browning, p. 44. Mem. de Conde, vol. 1, p. 535. 



246 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



plied the partisans of Home, "it was the teaching 
of the apostles at first, and it is the teaching of the 
priests now." "The apostles," rejoined the Hugue- 
nots ; " yes, 't is true, the apostles were, during 
their ministry, a living scripture ; but their oral 
teaching would infallibly have been altered by 
passing from mouth to mouth. God willed, there- 
fore, that these precious lessons should be pre- 
served to us in their writings, and thus become the 
ever undeflled source of truth and salvation." "To 
set the Scriptures in the foremost place, as your 
pretended reformers are doing," replied the monks 
and their satellites, " is to propagate heresy." 
" And what are the reformers doing," queried their 
apologists, "but what Christ did before them? 
The sayings of the prophets existed in the time of 
Jesus only as scripture, and it was to this written 
word that Christ appealed when he founded his 
kingdom.* And now in like manner the teaching 
of the apostles exists only as scripture ; and imitat- 
ing Christ, it is to this written word that we in our 
turn appeal, in order to reestablish the kingdom of 
our Lord in its primitive condition. The night is 
far spent ; the day is at hand ; all is in motion— in 
the lofty ancestral chateaus of the nobility, in the 
classic aisles of our universities, in the mansions of 
the rich, and in the lowly dwellings of the poor. If 
we wish to scatter the darkness, must we light the 
shrivelled wick of some old lamp ? Or shall we not 

- Matthew 22 : 29 ; 26 : 24, 52 ; Mark 14 : 49 ; Luke 18 : 31 ; 
24 : 27, 44, 45 ; John 5 : 39, 46 ; 10 : 35 ; 17 : 12, etc. 



ALMOST A TRAGEDY. 



247 



rather open the doors and shutters, and admit 
freely into the house the great light which God him- 
self has hung in the heavens ?"* 

But while by these and kindred conversations 
the Huguenots were burying the Romanists in their 
own nonsense, public events were marching towards 
a crisis. 

Although the Bourbon princes had absented 
themselves from Fontainebleau, the Guises had 
strongly suspected that some of their emissaries 
were present, who were empowered to negotiate 
with the leaders of the court opposition, with Mont- 
morenci, with the Chatillons, and the rest. From 
information received, they arrested a Gascon gen- 
tleman named La Saque; he was put to the torture, 
and the confession that Navarre and Concle were 
prepared to take the field as soon as the states-gen- 
eral were convened at Orleans, was wrung from his 
unwilling lips.f "Dip the wrapper of this letter in 
water/' faltered La Saque, enfeebled by the rack, 
and whose quivering sinews yet anguished him. 
The inquisitors hastened to comply with the direc- 
tion, when lo, the whole plot lay disclosed. What 
had before seemed blank paper, teemed with omi- 
nous meaning. The handwriting of Dordois, the 
constable's secretary, became visible ; a letter to 
the vidame of Chartres was revealed, and the Guises 
learned that, despite the failure of the Amboise in- 

* DAubigne, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Cen- 
tury, vol. 5, p. 162. 

f Duncan, p. 34. Davila, liv. 2. De Thou, liv. 25. 



248 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



triguG 5 the hostile nobles still hoped to succeed in 
expelling them from France.* 

The Bourbons were soon apprized of the appre- 
hension of La Saque, but they were at first uncer- 
tain whether he had made any disclosures, as his 
confession was kept a profound secret. But the 
imprisonment of the vidame of Chartres, one of 
their most faithful adherents, who was shut up in 
the Bastile and treated with great rigor, t con- 
vinced them that their projects were known. They 
were soon specially summoned to Orleans by Fran- 
cis. But traversing Gascony at the head of a con- 
siderable number of gentlemen, both Romanists 
and Huguenots, pledged to support them, they bade 
defiance to the king's mandate.^ However, repeat- 
ed commands from the court, intimating that fur- 
ther disobedience would be deemed an act of overt 
rebellion and constructive treason, imperilling both 
their liberties and their lives, intimidated the feeble 
spirit of the king of Navarre, and he dismissed his 
little army, saying, " I must obey, but I will obtain 
your pardon of the king." "Go," said an old cap- 
tain, "and ask pardon for yourself; our safety is 
in our good swords;" and the gentlemen who com- 
posed this nucleus force broke ranks indignantly, 
and separated for their homes. § 

° Davila, liv. 2. D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 1, p. 97. 
De Thou, liv. 25, p. 542. Browning, p. 45. 

t August 29, 1560. Journal de Brulart, quoted in Browning, 
p. 43. J Browning, p. 45. 

§ Vallaire, Essai sur les Guerres Civiles de France, quoted in 
Browning, p. 45. 



ALMOST A TRAGEDY. 



249 



In the month of October, the Bourbon princes 
set out for Orleans. Navarre, anxious not to make 
a misstep, made the greatest faux pas. He walked 
straight into the net, and death touched both Conde 
and himself so closely, that its clammy fingers might 
have been felt. 

The Guises were prepared for a crushing vic- 
tory. They had persuaded the king, by perverting 
La Saque's confession, that the princes of the blood, 
and especially Conde, whom they most feared on 
account of his energy, boldness, and talents, had 
conspired against his life ; and they urged him for 
his personal safety to arrest Conde as an example. 
To this advice the irritated monarch lent a willing- 
ear. When Cond6 reached Orleans in the latter 
part of October, he ordered him into his presence, 
reproached him with his many supposed crimes, 
and without deigning to hear any reply, command- 
ed his immediate imprisonment.* 

The trial soon followed, before the chancellor 
and some commissioners chosen by the Parliament, 
now become a mere echo of the Guises.t The prince 
refused to plead, protested against the competence 
of this mushroom tribunal, and demanded, as a 
prince of the blood, to be tried by the king in per- 
son and by the peers of the realm. £ This privi- 
lege, though perfectly legal and strictly in accord- 
ance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, 

* Brantome, yoL 10, p. 365. De Thou, liv. 25. Vie de Co- 
ligny. f Brantome, vol. 10, p. 366. 

% Ibid. Browning, p. 45. Dnncan, p. 35. 

11* 



250 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



was refused, and Cond6 was sentenced to be be- 
headed on the tenth of the following December.* 

When Cond£ was informed of the decision, his 
tranquillity was unruffled. A priest was sent to him 
to perforin mass. " What want you, reverend sir?" 
queried the prince. " I come to prepare you for 
death/' was the reply. " This is a work/ 5 said 
Cond6 reverently and solemnly, " that I can safely 
trust with my Master ; it rests between God and 
myself. Leave me, good father ; it is time for the 
work to begin. "t 

The priest retired, shocked at this blasphemy 4 

Then a gentleman of the court, an emissary of 
the Guises, came to Condi's cell. The prince re- 
ceived him with the courtesy which distinguished 
him. Having expressed his deep sympathy, the 
courtier hinted that possibly affairs might yet be 
accommodated, and requested the prince to appoint 
him mediator. 

" I ask but one Mediator" said Cond6 with an 
upward gesture, " and that one is interceding for 
me now at the throne of God. Eeturn, my lord, 
to your employers, and tell them you have failed in 
your mission ."§ 

One more trial yet awaited him. His wife was 
conducted to his prison. When she entered, she 
threw herself into her husband's arms, unable to 
speak. 

* Mem. cle Conde, vol. 1. D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 1, p. 
101. f Huguenots in France and America, vol. 3 , p. 74. 

{ Ibid. § Ibid. 



ALMOST A TRAGEDY. 



251 



"Now this is kind," said Conde with rare tact. 
" I know your errand : it is to confirm, to support, 
to give new strength to your husband ; to tell him 
that you will live to perform Ms duties and your 
own : to teach our children that their father, though 
dying an ignominious death, still bore a true and 
loyal heart. And now farewell. Let us not pro- 
long this painful interview. Nothing can be done 
by your means or mine ; it is hopeless. Let us not 
add disgrace to sorrow. All things are in the hands 
of God; he may yet save a life that has been sin- 
cerely devoted to his cause." 

Again the princess would have spoken ; but 
Conde said, " No more, sweet wife ; write all you 
would say. Farewell." And the hero quitted the 
apartment for an inner room.* 

When Conde's sentence was made public, his 
powerful relatives importuned the king for his par- 
don ; but they plead in vain. His wife, Eleanora 
de Rove, Montmorenci's niece, accompanied by her 
children, threw herself before Francis, and with a 
woman's devotion endeavored to beat through the 
icy coldness of the king. "Madame/ 5 said the 
monarch, "your husband has assailed the crown, 
and conspired against my life ; he must pay the 
penalty." In despair the poor princess implored 
the intercession of the Guises. "It is our duty," 
they said, "to strike off the head of heresy and 
rebellion at one blow."t 

s Huguenots in France and America, yoL 1, p. 75. 

f Day., 1. 2. Brown., p. 46. Dun., pp. 35. 36. Mem. de Conde'. 



252 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



The complete destruction of the Huguenot party 
was to follow the execution of Cond6, and every one 
was to be compelled to choose between death or the 
signature of the confession of faith drawn up in 
1542 by the Sorbonne, in response to Calvin's "In- 
stitutes."* 

The king of Navarre, though himself but little 
better than a prisoner, was for once extraordinarily 
active, and he made efforts constant and tireless to 
save his brother, even humbling himself to the car- 
dinal of Lorraine, by whom, however, he was rudely 
repulsed. The duke of Guise had conceived a 
scheme to murder Navarre, and had even secured 
the king's assent to it.t It was arranged that 
Francis should summon Navarre to his presence, 
and that at a sign from him some bravos, whom 
Guise would station behind the arras, should pierce 
their victim to the heart. 

Navarre was indeed summoned into the king's 
chamber ; but having received word from some 
quarter that to go would be to commit suicide, the 
reluctant prince refused to obey the citation. At 
length, after being summoned three times, he yield- 
ed, saying to a confidential friend as he departed 
on the perilous visit, " Duty compels me to go ; I 
will defend myself, if attacked, to the last gasp. If 
I fall, take my shirt, stained with my blood, carry 
.it to my son, and may life abandon him sooner than 

* Davila, liv. 2. Browning, p. 46. Duncan, pp. 35, 36. Mem. 
de Conde. Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, liv. 2. 
t Cayet, liv. 6, p. 525. Browning, p. 46. 



ALMOST A TRAGEDY. 



253 



the purpose to avenge his murdered father."* Na- 
varre went to tlie king, listened calmly to his re- 
proofs, replied gently, and retired unharmed : Fran- 
cis' courage failed him at the critical moment. "Oh 
thB fool, the coward ; what a contemptible monarch 
we have !"t exclaimed the incensed duke of Guise 
as he saw Navarre quit the royal presence un- 
smitten. 

Disappointed in their hope of assassinating the 
Navarrese sovereign, the princes of Lorraine pressed 
with increased vehemence for Conde's early execu- 
tion. The fatal day approached. Francis, unwill- 
ing to witness the ghastly spectacle, had resolved 
upon a tour to Chambord, when suddenly he was 
taken alarmingly ill. The chancellor instantly sent 
for Ambrose Pare, the king's physician; and upon 
being informed that Francis was not likely to re- 
cover, the cunning lawyer had recourse to a strata- 
gem. He was very desirous of postponing Conde's 
death, and had delayed signing the order for his 
execution for several days by one pretext or anoth- 
er, using the weapons of his profession. Now the 
Guises hastened to him and implored him to sign ; 
alarmed by the king's health, they feared that 
Cond6 might yet cheat the executioner. L'Hopital 
pretended to be seized with a violent colic, which 

' « De Thou, liv. 25. Davila, liv. 2. Duncan, p. 36. 
f De Thou. DAubigne, Hist. Universelle. Caret. Brown- 
ing. Duncan. "According to the Abbe Anquetil, Guise's ex- 
pression, when he found that Francis' courage had deserted him 
at the last moment, was, ' 0 le lache! 0 le poltron!'" Esprit de 
la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 84 ; cited in Browning, p. 46, note. 



254 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



prevented him from examining the body of the de- 
cree, an essential preliminary to his signature ; but 
when Francis' danger became imminent, the keen 
chancellor suddenly recovered from his pain, and 
hurrying off to the queen mother, advised her to take 
advantage of the posture of affairs by uniting her- 
self closely with the princes of the blood, as the 
Guises had already despoiled her of power and in- 
fluence. The Machiavellian Catharine agreed with 
L'Hopital, and charged Coligny, who had been sum- 
moned with the other nobles to attend the assembly 
of the states-general, with the negotiation. 

Thus stood affairs wh.en, on the 5th of Decem- 
ber, 1560, the thread which attached the shattered 
health of Francis to life, snapped, and the young 
king, then but seventeen, lay dead in the midst of 
a court which instantly gave itself up to the mock- 
ery of w T oe.* 

* Davila positively asserts that the execution of Conde was 
deferred by the Guises themselves, who hoped to entrap the old 
constable in the same net. Montmorenci was urgently called on, 
but did not appear. It was also the wish of the Guises to involve 
the king of Navarre in the same punishment, but sufficient evi- 
dence did not exist. Duncan, p. 37, note. 



THE LOST LEADER. 



255 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

THE LOST LEADER. 

Charles IX., a fatal name, an infamous mem- 
ory, succeeded in his eleventh year to the vacant 
throne of his dead brother. Now once more the 
politics of the court were completely revolutionized. 
The Guises had been entrenched by the influence of 
their niece, Mary Stuart, over Francis II. Of this 
support they were now of course deprived. Chaos 
reigned, not Charles ; and the selfish struggles of 
the chiefs of the several factions, ambitious not for 
their country's honor, but for their own govern- 
mental advancement, held France a second-rate 
power for a quarter of a century, and made this 
period one of the most calamitous in its history. 

Upon Charles' coronation, Catharine de' Medici 
assumed the position of arbiter almost without 
opposition. Almost the first act of the infant king, 
under the queen mother's direction, was to write the 
Parliament, on the 8th of December, 1560, a letter, 
in which, after announcing his brother's death, he 
informed that body "that, considering his youth, 
and confiding in the virtue and wisdom of the 
queen mother, he had requested her to undertake 
the administration of affairs, with the wise counsel 
and assistance of the king of Navarre, and of the 



258 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



gentlemen of distinction in the late king's coun- 
sel"* 

This crafty move at once deposed the princes of 
Lorraine, but their real influence remained almost 
untouched, since they were the representatives of 
the reactionists of France, as the Bourbons were of 
the Huguenots. 

Still, many changes occurred. The command of 
the army was taken from the duke of Guise, and 
confided to Antony of Bourbon, who was made 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom. t 

The prince of Cond6 was released from prison ; 
and while as a matter of form he retired for a little 
to his government of Bearn, his innocence was 
openly proclaimed at court.J 

The nobles who had been placed under the ban 
by the haughty Guises in the days of their regime, 
were recalled with honor, and the constable Mont- 
morenci resumed his ancient functions, and regain 
ed his former titles.§ 

At the council board of the king the queen 
mother was now seated as regent, while upon either 
hand the princes of Bourbon, the princes of Lor- 
raine, and Montmorenci were clustered.il 

Between all the members of this heterogeneous 
cabinet a rankling hatred still existed, which threat- 
ened at every session to inaugurate fresh convul- 

* Browning, p. 47. Brantome, Davila, etc. 
f Brantome, vol. 10. Mem. de Tavannes, p. 243. Davila, 
liv. 2. % Browning, p. 47. Mem. de Conde. 

§ Duncan, p. 39. Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 93. 
|| Ibid. 



THE LOST LEADER. 



257 



sions. But Catharine, cozened by her favorite the- 
ory of an " adjusted equilibrium/ 5 foolishly hoped to 
be able to hold the scales evenly poised between 
these implacable enemies.* 

The first measures of the new administration 
were indeed judicious. All persons were released 
who had been imprisoned for heresy, and their 
property was restored, while a general amnesty was 
proclaimed. t 

While the reconstruction of the cabinet was be- 
ing effected, the states- general continued their sit- 
tings at Orleans. L'Hopital implored the assembly 
to adopt such measures as would insure domestic 
tranquillity, burying, in devotion to the general 
good, the bitter feuds of the past reign, which had 
so nearly kindled a civil war 4 But this statesman- 
like and noble appeal of the patriotic chancellor was 
not much heeded. 

The nobles, taught wisdom by experience, in- 
sisted, as a sine qua non, upon the exile of the princes 
of Lorraine. Conde, Xavarre, and Montmorenci 
declared that if Catharine did not concede this meas- 
ure to the safety of the state, they would march to 
Paris, proclaim one of themselves regent in her place, 
and execute their purpose. But this scheme was 
rendered abortive by the action of the chancel- 
lor, who prevailed upon the king to command the 
constable to remain at court ; a command which 



* Duncan, p. 39. 

f Mem. de Conde, vol. 2, p. 260, et seq. Duncan, p. 40. 
t Ibid. Browning, p. 48. 



253 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Montmorenci was too old and wily a courtier to 

disobey.* 

But a motion made about the same time by the 
king of Navarre in the states-general, had a more 
serious result. He proposed a searching examina- 
tion into the financial system of the preceding reign, 
and that a return of all excessive gratifications in 
money or lands to the late court favorites be speed- 
ily ordered.t This motion instantly made a flutter 
in the dove-cote, and alienated a powerful friend. 
Every one felt that it was a blow at the extortion of 
the Guises, but the blow struck beyond them. It 
affected the gratuities of Diana de Poitiers, the 
marshal Saint Andre, an old chum of Henry II., 
and the servile instrument of the duchess de Val- 
entinois, who had battened upon the gains incident 
to his office of pimp4 and of Montmorenci himself, 
since one of his sons had married a daughter of 
Diana, and he had shared largely in the public 
plunder.§ A community of interest made this horde 
of thieves, but yesterday deadly foemen, fast friends 
to-day : all minor differences were buried in the 
unanimous desire to preserve ill-gotten wealth ; and 
the consequence was, an infamous coalition. The 
Guises, Montmorenci, and Saint Andr6 united un- 
der the name of the Triumvieate.H These aban- 
doned nobles swore at the altar to forget their old 
quarrels ; and in order to give a religious flavor to 



* Duncan, p. 41. 

{ Browning, Duncan, Mem. de Condi. 
§ Duncan, De Thou, Pasquier. 



f Duncan, p. 40. 

|| Ibid. 



THE LOST LEADEE. 



259 



their avaricious league, they signed a treaty by 
which, they pledged themselves to the extermina- 
tion of heresy. It was a fitting collocation ; a horde 
of titled plunderers, met to preserve their booty 
from the clutch of justice, and leagued to earn a 
good right to their stolen gold by filching the yet 
more costly jewel of life from their innocent coun- 
trymen whose creed taught them better things. 

The Triumvirate had a powerful ally in the 
Spanish ambassador, who had a seat at the coun- 
cil, pretending that his master, Philip II., the most 
bigoted king in history, had taken France under his 
protection.* And such was the wretched and dis- 
graceful condition of France, torn by the interne- 
cine factions, that this insolent foreigner was tamely 
permitted to dictate its policy. This Spaniard was 
personally and politically attached to the Guises, 
who sacrificed the honor of France and the dignity 
of the crown to secure his protection.f 

The nation was now divided into two great par- 
ties, into which all the minor factions had melted : 
the Triumvirate, supported by the holy see and by 
the Romanists ; the Bourbon princes, at the head 
of the Huguenots, and backed by those who, indif- 
ferent about religious creeds, longed for the inau- 
guration of political reform, and for the reinstate- 
ment of France in her natural position of a com- 
manding power in Europe.^ 

Between these parties stood the queen mother, 

* Duncan, p. 42. f Ibid., p. 43. Kanke, p. 208. 

X Browning, p. 50. 



260 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



muttering her shibboleth, and eternally grasping 
the shadow of power, but never its substance. 

The Triumvirate and the Bourbons were about 
equally matched, and Catharine long hesitated which 
way to lean. Finally judging that it would be safest 
to favor the Huguenots for the moment, she per- 
mitted the eager chancellor to wring from the states- 
general a decree, published in July, 1561, and hence 
called the Edict of July, which relieved the Hugue- 
nots from the punishment of death without a judi- 
cial condemnation, but which still refused them 
their principal prayer, permission to assemble for 
public worship.* 

This edict was the pretext for a simulated rec- 
onciliation between Cond6 and Francis of Guise. 
They met at the palace, where the king desired that 
the duke should declare how affairs had been man- 
aged at Orleans. Guise accused the late king of 
having peremptorily ordered the imprisonment of 
Conde ; on which the prince answered, looking ear- 
nestly at the duke, " Whoever put that affront upon 
me, I hold him to have been a scoundrel and a vil- 
lain." " And I also," replied the hypocritical duke ; 
" but it does not regard me in the least." 

They then dined together, interchanged vows of 
friendship,! and separated with mutual, but smoth- 
ered curses, 

* ' And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
And courage never to submit or yield." 



* Browning, p. 50. Pasquier, vol.2, p. 84. Mem. de Conde, 
vol. 2. f Duncan, p. 43. Browning, p. 51. 



THE LOST LEADER. 



261 



Such was tlie apparently placid, vet really un- 
easy and abnormal political situation — a heteroge- 
neous cabinet, a double-faced edict, a hollow recon- 
ciliation — when a remarkable event occurred, the 
famous colloquy of Poissy was convoked. 

The chancellor L'Hopital, eager in the pursuit 
of his panacea for the existing evils, a grand con- 
ference upon religious differences, in which both 
Romanists and Huguenots should be represented, 
and in which theological rights should be definitive- 
ly defined and regulated, persuaded Catharine de 5 
Medici to assent to his project, and to command 
the debate.* 

The Roman publicists and orators were reluctant 
to accede to the conference; but stung by the jeers 
of the evangelicals, who hailed the project of a free 
colloquy with enthusiasm, they finally consented. t 

Accordingly, after great preparations, the ora- 
torical representatives of the two ecclesiastical par- 
ties met, in the month of August, 1561, in the little 
village of Poissy, a short distance from St. Ger- 
maine, where the royal family then resided.;): 

The leading Eoman disputant was the cardinal 
of Lorraine, a prelate of fine, though sadly per- 
verted intellect, of rare scholarship, and whose dis- 
course, sustained by a never-failing memory, flowed 
from him intelligibly and gracefully. § He was as- 

* Duncan, p. 43. Browning, p. 51. De Thou, liv. 25. Da- 
vila. etc, t Ibid 

% Esprit de la Ligue. torn. 1. p. S3. Duncan, p. 45. 
§ Eanke. p. 169. 



262 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



sisted by five other cardinals and by forty bish- 
ops." 

The reformers were represented by Theodore 
Beza, a divine of singular genius, erudition, acu- 
men, and eloquence, the friend and biographer of 
Calvin, who was supported by twelve celebrated 
doctors of the Reformation, among whom were 
Marloratus and Pierre Martyr. t 

On the ninth of September the session opened 
with great eclat. Never had a grander audience 
been convened, not even when Luther's Demosthe- 
nian eloquence sounded over Worms. The king 
himself attended the first sitting, accompanied by 
the queen mother, his elder brother Henry of Anjou, 
his sister Margaret de Valois, the Bourbon princes, 
the princes of Lorraine, the old constable, the min- 
isters of state, the holder of the great seal, and the 
chief officers of the crown.J 

The debate was opened by L'Hopital, in a con- 
ciliatory address, which breathed the spirit of a 
politician, not of a theologian ; for, careless about 
matters of religious belief, he was anxious only to 
preserve a false peace, to tide over differences. He 
proposed a compromise, and urged the papists to 
relax upon some points, in order to win bsrck the 
Calvinists.§ This conservative, Erasmian course 
was distasteful to both parties. It was thought, 

* Duncan, Esprit de la Ligne. Browning, Vie de Coligny, etc. 
f Ibid. Hist, du Cardinal Tournon, p. 369. Hist, du Calvi- 
nisme, liv. 3. % Ibid. 

§ Hist, du Concile de Trente, p. 435. De Thou, liv. 28. 



THE LOST LEADEE. 



263 



and rightly thought, that in radical differences rad- 
ical methods should be employed, 

Yrhen the chancellor finished his speech, Beza, 
the orator of the Huguenots, was called on to state 
his opinions. The questions at issue were two, the 
authority of the church of Borne and transubstan- 
tiation.* 

The Protestant orator stepped forward into the 
middle of the hall, knelt, and prayed God to en- 
lighten his mind and inspire him with the lumin- 
ous truth, and then commenced his address. He 
adduced numerous and irresistible arguments to 
disprove the assumption of Rome that she alone 
is the true church, made a profession of the re- 
formed faith, expatiated upon the rigors, unchris- 
tian and abhorrent, which were exercised against 
the primitive theology, defended the different points 
which Rome disputed, and after an exhaustive dis- 
cussion of the dogma of the real presence in the 
eucharist, concluded with the affirmation that Christ 
was as far from the sacramental elements as the 
highest heavens were from the earth. t 

Horrified by this bold declaration, the adherents 
of Latin orthodoxy broke out into vociferous clam- 
ors. The cardinal of Tournon suddenly started 
from his seat, and after asserting that he entirely 
disapproved of the colloquy, and had only sanc- 
tioned it in deference to the wish of Catharine de 

* De Thou, liv. 28, Diseours des Actes de Poissy. Brown- 
ing, etc. 

f Ibid. Duncan, p. 47. Browning, p. 53. 



264 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Medici, exhorted the infant king not to be led astray 
by the subtle and impetuous eloquence of Beza, but 
to suspend his judgment until he had listened to 
the reply of the orthodox divines.* Tournon fur- 
ther pointed out the impropriety of the young mon- 
arch's attendance upon the debates, as they involved 
questions above the capacity of his tender age : 
this hint was taken, for Charles did not afterwards 
appear, t 

The cardinal of Lorraine then rose to speak, 
and he delivered a harangue of great astuteness 
and rhetorical talent. When he concluded, the 
cardinals and bishops formed a circle around him, 
and declared that he had expounded the true faith, 
for which they were all ready to suffer martyrdom. ;j: 

Beza demanded to reply, but since the hour was 
late, the conference was adjourned to the following 
day.§ 

The debates continued through several clays, 
and Beza astonished his opponents by his accurate 
learning, his acute reasoning, his evangelical fervor, 
and his animated, graphic eloquence.! Still the 
good results of the colloquy were scarcely percepti- 
ble ; the ecclesiastics in general were convinced that 
no reform could take place without stripping them 
of their vast wealth, of their usurped power, and of 

* Bossnet, Hist, cles Variations, torn. 1, p. 65. 
f Duncan, p. 47. Browning. Hist, clu Concile de Trente. 
I Ibid. De Tlion, liv. 28. Discours des Actes de Poissy. 
§ Ibid. ( 

|| Yie de Coligny. Hist, du Card. Tournon, p. 367. Brown- 
ing, p. 53. 



THE LOST LEADER. 



205 



tlieir impunity.* And when the conference of 
Poissy was dissolved, the disputed points stood just 
as unsettled as when the debates commenced, while 
both sides claimed the victory. But while in some 
respects the colloquy resulted unsatisfactorily, in 
others it was not without effect. The papists felt 
that they had committed a blunder in consenting 
to it at all — it compromised a faith which had ex- 
isted for so many ages; the bare discussion of these 
questions was an acknowledgment that Borne might 
err. " The government/' says a violent Jesuit who 
wrote at a later day, " committed a grave error, or 
at least idleness, in permitting the conference of 
Poissy, instead of sending Beza and his troop to 
the then sitting council of Trent. "t 

Besides this moral gain and recognition, several 
bishops were so affected by Beza's masterly argu- 
ments, that they devoted themselves to an inquiry 
after the truth.;;; By the conversations which they 
had with Catharine de 5 Medici, they so far wrought 
a change in her sentiments, that she not only invited 
Beza, but actually insisted upon his remaining at 
the court. The divine complied ; and protected by 
the queen mother, delivered a series of powerful 
sermons which greatly advanced the Beformation.§ 

Catharine did more ; she wrote an epistle to the 

° -The chief part of the wealth of the church being given to 
have prayers said for the dead, the heritics, by destroying purga- 
tory, would impoverish it. : " Mem. du Tuvannes. p. 121. 

f Caveyrac, Apology for Louis XIY., p. 30; cited in Browning, 
p. 53. J Browning, p. 54. 

§ Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1, pp. 81, 82. 

fln?n: Tints. 2 2 



266 THE HUGUENOTS. 

pontiff: " Those of the reform," she said, "are nei- 
ther Anabaptists nor libertines ; they believe in the 
twelve articles of the apostles' creed ; therefore 
many persons think that they ought not to be cut 
off from communion with the mother church. What 
danger could there be in taking away the images 
from the churches, and in retrenching some useless 
forms in the celebration of the sacraments? It 
would further be very beneficial to allow to all the 
communion in both kinds, and to permit divine ser- 
vice to be performed in the vulgar tongue."* 

Thus spoke Catharine de' Medici shortly after 
the conclusion of the colloquy of Poissy. She boldly 
recommended to the sovereign pontiff the adoption 
of a series of innovations which the most heated 
enthusiast, the most Utopian dreamer among the 
Huguenots w T ould not have demanded. .Yet this w 7 as 
the woman who, a little later, instigated the mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew! Catharine is the Sphinx 
of history; and though many an (Edipus has as- 
sumed to solve the riddle, the wily tiger queen yet 
remains a mystery. Of course Beza's eloquence 
could not have touched her heart ; she had none- 
only a muscle to circulate the blood. It is proba- 
ble that Beza's flattering reception and retention at 
court, and the papal letter, w T ere both simply parts 
of some scheme for preserving the balance of power 
in her own hands. 

Be this as it may, Paul IV. was alarmed, and he 

« Hist, du ConciJe de Trente, p. 433. Davila, liv. 2, p. 185. 
Browning, p. 54. 



THE LOST LEAD EE. 



267 



instantly instructed liis legate at Paris to spare no 
exertions for strengthening the papal party in 
France.* 

The most plausible plan for the achievement of 
this purpose seemed to be to alienate the king of 
Navarre from the Huguenots. It was thought that 
if that monarch could be won over to Home, " her- 
esy would be a clock without a pendulum." The 
legate, seconded by a score of cunning satellites, 
commenced the congenial work. Every wile which 
could affect the human mind and heart was put in 
active operation. Temptation after temptation was 
thrown into his way. The pope offered to dissolve 
his marriage with Jane d'Albret, on the ground of 
her heresy ;t the Guises offered him the hand of 
their niece Mary Stuart, with her prospective claims 
on the English throne ;% a marriage with the king's 
sister Margaret de Valois was hinted at as quite 
possible ;§ but to all of these seductions Navarre 
was deaf. He even refused a promise of Sardinia, 
as an indemnification for that portion of Navarre 
of which the Spanish king had deprived him.|| 

Finding that Antony of Bourbon could not be 
bribed to^ desert his faith, the Jesuits changed their 
tactics. Then this man, proof to all the proposals 
of temporal advantage which had been made him, 
fell a victim to his own pride and vanity. 

® Brantome, vol. 8, p. 269. Browning, p. 54. 
f Hist, du Cardinal Granville, p. 361, et seq. Davila, liv. 2, 
p. 178. J Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 95. De Thou, liv. 28. 

§ Ibid. Strada, lib. 3. 

|| Brantome, vol. 8, p. 270. Duncan, p. 49. 



268 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Antony of Navarre was known throughout his 
whole life as a man amiable, but weak and vacillat- 
ing; who, although he adopted his opinions with 
vivacity, did not hold them with firmness.* And 
when with insidious and tireless zeal it was insinu- 
ated that Concle w r as the actual chief of the Hugue- 
not party, wdiile he was only his brother's second, 
his pride and vanity revolted. He hesitated ; the 
king's youth opened for him a long career of au- 
thority; and if he became a papist, his power and 
influence in Europe would be so much enhanced, 
that he might dictate to Philip II. of Spain the res- 
toration of his stolen kingdom. The Spanish am- 
bassador himself breathed this insinuation into his 
ear.t 

Quite overcome and dazzled blind to the infamy 
of the action by his brilliant prospects, Navarre at 
length succumbed; the renegade king joined the 
triumvirate, and this "lost leader," in the excess of 
his newly acquired zeal, became one of the bitter- 
est persecutors of his old companions.^ Similar 
revulsions are the never- failing accompaniment of 
political and theological treason. 

Navarre soon proceeded to carry his new opin- 
ions into practice. He declared that he considered 
the reformed preachers as charlatans, and expressed 
his determination to remove his son — afterwards 
the famous Henry IV. — from their influence, and 



* Kanke, p. 209. 

t Browning, p. 54. Mem. de Concle, vol. 2, p. 10. 
t Duncan, p. 48. Hist, du Cardinal Granville, etc. 



THE LOST LEADEK. 



2G9 



place liim under Romanist governors. Jane d'Al- 
bret, who had inherited her faith and Christian 
devotion from her mother Margaret of Navarre, the 
mother also of French reform, heard this avowal 
with dismay. After vain entreaties, she was com- 
pelled to yield ; but passionately embracing her 
child, she exclaimed, "Oh, my son, if you renounce 
the religion of your mother, she will renounce and 
disinherit you. Keep to the faith in which you 
have hitherto been educated, and God will be your 
guide and support."* 

"My dear madame," said Catharine, who was 
present, " let me advise you to suppress this vio- 
lence of emotion. I have always found it best to 
appear to yield. Assume a seeming conformity to 
your husband's will ; even attend mass, and you 
will the more easily get the reins into your own 
hands." 

To this characteristic advice Jane d'Albret re- 
plied indignantly, " Rather than deny my faith by 
attending mass, if I had my son in one hand, and 
my kingdom in the other, I would throw them both 
into the sea."t 

Such was the difference between these two 
women and between their creeds. 

But Jane d'Albret was ere long relieved of her 
fears by her vain and vacillating husband's death. 

Ere Navarre's defection startled France, the 
indefatigable chancellor, not discouraged by the 

° Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1, p. 83. Tie de 
Coligny. f Ibid. De Thou, liv. 28. Davila, etc. 



270 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



failure of the colloquy of Poissy to apply a remedy 
to the ecclesiastical abuses, contrived to convoke 
another assembly of the states-general at St. Ger- 
maine. 

" The object of your deliberations/' said L'Ho- 
pital in his opening address to the deputies, "is 
simple and clear. Is it advantageous, in the exist- 
ing state of affairs, to tolerate or to forbid the meet- 
ings of the Calvinists for the exercise of their devo- 
tions? That is the single question you have to 
decide. To come to a right conclusion, you must 
keep out of view whatever relates to creed, doc- 
trine, or religious discipline. Even let it be as- 
sumed that Calvinism is one continuous error of 
judgment, is that a reason to bar their assemblies, 
or to justify the proscription of those French sub- 
jects who have embraced it ? Can a man not be a 
good citizen without being a good Romanist ? Do 
not then waste your time, or entangle yourselves in 
fruitless controversy, in the vain attempt to decide 
which is the true religion. We are not here to es- 
tablish a mode of faith, but a rule of government."* 

It was thus that the keen and cautious chancel- 
lor exhibited his anxiety to make all vexed points 
of theology subservient to the vital interests of 
political government. By dexterously narrowing 
down the discussion into this limited space, and 
extracting the sting of theological hate, the triumph 
of the Huguenots was rendered certain ; for had 

* De Thou, liv. 29. Davila, liv. 2. Vie de Coligny. Hist, du 
Concile de Trente, p. 452. 



THE LOST LEADER. 



271 



the duke of Guise affirmed that none but Romanists 
could be good citizens, the prince of Conde would 
have resented it as a personal affront, and demand- 
ed satisfaction at the sword's point. The papists 
w^ere thus compelled to make concessions, or raise 
the standard of civil war, for which they were not 
yet fully prepared. 

The assembly of St. Germaine therefore passed 
a decree, called the Edict of January, 1562, by which 
many of the disabilities of the Huguenots were re- 
moved. The reformers might meet unarmed with- 
out the walls of cities and towns, and the local 
magistrates were commanded to afford them pro- 
tection ; though prohibited from levying money to 
pay their preachers, they might receive any sum 
voluntarily contributed.* In return for these con- 
cessions, the Huguenots were to restore all images 
and reliques of saints which they had seized, and 
to pay tithe and other ecclesiastical dues, while 
their preachers were commanded to abstain from 
all violent invectives against the mass.t 

Some bloody scenes occurred in various sec- 
tions after the promulgation of this edict;:): but as 
a whole the winter glided quietly away. The Hu- 
guenots were grateful and satisfied ; the Romanists 
sullen and discontented. But both parties felt con- 
scious of an approaching rupture, convinced that 
this temporary calm was only the harbinger of a 
fearful storm. 



_ ° Vie de Coligny, p. 238. Browning, p. 55. Duncan, p. 50. 
t Ibid. X Browning, p. 55. 



272 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

THE APPEAL TO AEMS. 

The Huguenots were surprised and grieved by 
the renegadism of tlie king of Navarre : the queen 
mother was alarmed; and to restore the equilib- 
rium., she openly allied herself with the reform 
party."" 

Coligny, anxiously watchful for the interest of 
religion, was early apprized of the efforts being 
made to win over Antony of Bourbon; and when 
the illustrious deserter joined the Triumvirate, he 
was "sad, but not astonished;" he knew Navarre's 
character. He had suspected the motive of a mis- 
sion to Spain in the early months of 1562, and em- 
ploying persons to watch the emissary, he ordered 
them to arrest and search him on his return. 
Shortly after the messenger, in the garb of a pil- 
grim, endeavored to reenter Trance. He was 
seized and searched ; nothing was found. Some 
one, however, observing that he threw away his 
staff, informed Coligny of the circumstance. The 
acute admiral ordered it to be brought to him; a 
countryman had picked it up and carried it to his 
cottage. On examination it was found that the 
staff was hollow, and that it contained a budget of 
letters from the king of Spain. t Upon examining 

« De Thou, liv. 28. Davila, liv. 2. Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 90. 
t Vie de Colign3 T , p. 238. Browning, p. 55. 



THE APPEAL TO AEMS. 



273 



these letters, they were found to be directed to the 
king of Navarre, to the Triumvirate, to Catharine, 
and to others of the leading Roman chiefs, express- 
ing poignant grief at the concessions recently made 
to heresy, and exhorting them to take arms and 
crush the Huguenots by a single blow, to effect 
which Philip offered to furnish men and money.* 

Catharine was absolutely frightened ; Coligny 
was calm and resolute. The queen mother allied 
herself more closely than ever with the admiral. 
The admiral, perceiving that the foes of his faith 
were about to kindle the flames of civil war, worked 
with Titanic energy to prepare his party for the 
ordeal of battle. He united with Conde, and secur- 
ing the appointment of that prince to the chief com- 
mand of the reformers, called upon him to make a 
public confession of the Protestant creed. t 

The gallant prince complied ; and so great was 
the effect of his example, that many nobles did not 
scruple to do likewise. The number of persons who 
came to the Faubourgs to hear the Reformation 
preached in a little time numbered fifty thousand, i 
a yery respectable congregation. 

Xayarre, witnessing Coligny's actiyity, and gall- 
ed perhaps by the presence of his old companion 
in arms, urgently pressed Catharine to banish him 
from court. She would consent, howeyer, on but 

* Duncan, p. 50, 51. Brooming, p. 55. Yie de Coligny, p. 
300. f Tbid. 

t Tie de Coligny, p. 243. The cardinal of Chatillon and the 
bishop of Xevers were publicly married. 

12* 

I 



274 THE HUGUENOTS. 

one condition : that the duke of Guise, the cardinal 
of Lorraine, and the marshal St. Andre, the origi- 
nal triumvirs, should also quit the capital for their 
estates. Unexpectedly to Catharine, her terms were 
accepted ; for the chiefs of the reaction, knowing 
that their interests might safely be intrusted to 
Montmorenci and the king of Navarre, who were 
to remain in Paris, were willing to go into tempo- 
rary exile for the purpose of removing their dan- 
gerous rivals from the vicinity of St. Germaine.* 

But this compromise did not long stop up the 
mouth of Vesuvius with its cotton. The adherents 
of Guise at the capital wrote him that the queen 
mother was every day becoming more closely con- 
nected with the Huguenots, and urged him to has- 
ten back to Paris. Guise obeyed the summons, 
leaving his estate of Joinville towards the close of 
February, 1562. His suite, already numerous when 
he quitted his chateau, was augmented as he ad- 
vanced, until, when he reached the little town of 
Vassy, he w r as at the head of a small army.t 

At Vassy a fatal event occurred. A Huguenot 
congregation attending divine worship in a barn, 
attracted the attention of the bigoted chieftain and 
his fanatical retinue. Filled with hate, and armed, 
they rushed upon the reformers, who endeavored to 
shut the doors against the assailants. A collision 
resulted ; Guise himself was slightly w T ounded in 

* Duncan, p. 51. Vie de Coligny, p. 250. 
f Davila, De Thou, Browning, Vie de Coligny. Vassy is a 
small town in Champagne, some sixty leagues east of Paris. 



THE APPEAL TO ARMS. 



275 



the cheek by some chance missile, and his follow- 
ers, infuriated at the sight of his blood, massacred 
the whole helpless congregation.* 

The news of this bloody foray spread with al- 
most incredible rapidity ; it reached the metropolis 
before its hero ; and when Guise appeared, the civic 
mob of Paris hailed the "butcher of Vassy" with 
"frenzied shouts and tears of joy."t A sanguinary 
and cowardly slaughter of an unarmed assembly, 
convened for religious worship, was hailed as a 
great and heroic exploit. 

In later days Guise protested that he had no 
hand in this wholesale assassination ; but whether 
he intended it or not, it is enough that he did not 
prevent it. The deed was his ; upon his head his- 
tory heaps her malediction.']: 

Nor was Yassy the only scene of violence. Ca- 
hors, Toulouse, Sens, Amiens, and Tours hastened 
to follow in Guise's bloody footsteps, § At Tours a 
refinement of cruelty was displayed. Three hun- 
dred Huguenots were shut up without food for 
three days ; then, tied together two by two, they 
were led to a slaughter-house and butchered like 
beasts.H 

At Sens also there was an exhibition of atro- 
cious fanaticism ; during three successive days the 
bell of the cathedral invited the citizens to murder 

* Kanke, p. 211. Browning, p. 57. Duncan, p. 51. Tie cle 
Coligny, p. 243. 

f Duncan, p. 51. Banke, p. 211, etc. J Ibid. 

§ Beza, Life of Calvin, D'Anbigne, Hist. Univ. De Thou, 
liv. 29. • || Browning, p. 58. 



276 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the reformers. Even the vines which embellished 
their dwellings were plucked up by the roots. The 
bodies of the victims, floating down the 'Seine, ap- 
peared to speak trumpet-toned to their brothers in 
the faith for justice.* The Huguenots did indeed 
bestir themselves to obtain redress. When some 
of the shocking incidents of the massacres were 
related to Navarre, the traitor cried with a sneer, 
" They were all factious heretics." " Sire," replied 
Beza, who chanced to be present, with indignant 
emphasis, " I speak *on behalf of a religion which 
pardons injuries, instead of resenting them ; but 
remember, it is an anvil which has blunted many 
hammers."! 

But while one party demanded justice, the other 
clamored fiercely for the extermination of the Hu- 
guenots, and Montluc addressed a memoir showing 
how easily it might be effected, j 

Meantime Concle, overpowered, quitted Paris 
with his preachers and armed followers. § "Caesar 
has not only crossed the Rubicon," wrote he to 
D'Andelot and Coligny, " he has already seized 
Home, and his banners will shortly be everywhere 
displayed."!! 

Guise was aware that in a coup d'etat audacity 

° Browning, p. 58. 

f Duncan, p. 52. Beza, Hist. Eccles., Iiv. 6. 

X This memoir may be found at length, in Mem. de Conde, vol. 
3, p. 184, et seq. Browning, p. 58. 

§ Vie de Coligny. Browning, p. 59. Kanke, p. 211. 

|| Duncan, pp. 52, 53. Browning, p. 59. Journal de Henri 
III., vol. 2, ed. Cologne. 



THE APPEAL TO ARMS. 



277 



and energy were necessary. Catharine was so- 
journing at Meaux with lier royal son. The princes 
of Lorraine sped thither, seized the regent and the 
king, and hastening back to Paris, received another 
ovation."^ Their captives were lodged in a build- 
ing which had been used as a prison for a century. + 
The possession of the king's person was the grand 
object of their policy, and they succeeded, spite of 
the prayers and menaces of the queen mother. 

Emboldened by their success, the triumvirs re- 
jected all compromises, all overtures, and deter- 
mined to strike a vigorous blow at once in the very 
commencement of their lawless campaign ; they 
designed a revocation of the tolerant edict of Jan- 
uary, in the chief cities first, and then throughout 
the kingdom. 

Meantime Paris was surrendered to a carnival 
of fanaticism ; the cardinal of Lorraine commenced 
preaching in the style of his predecessors, St. Dom- 
inic and Torquemada ; and Montmorenci displayed 
his zeal on the evening of the vouthful monarch's 
return to the metropolis, by plundering the Hugue- 
not chapels, destroying the books, and building 
bonfires with the reading-desks of the preachers. 
The fanatical violence with which he sought after 
and destroyed these desks, gained the hoary old 
bigot the soubriquet of Capitaine Brule-Bancs. % 

* Eanke. p. 212. Thuanns, lib. 29. Mem. de Conde, vol. 3, 
p. 195 f Beza > Hist - Eceles., liv. 29. 

% Mein. de Conde, vol. 3, p. 198. Duncan, p. 53. Brantome, 
vol. 7, p. 79. 



278 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



"While these events were occurring at the capi- 
tal, Concle was not idle. He received, through a 
secret messenger, a letter from Catharine, in which 
she implored him to save the mother and the child, 
at the same time assuring him that all her hopes 
rested upon him ; the libert}^ of the king, the pros- 
. perity of France, all w T as staked upon the pluck and 
loyalty of the Huguenots.'* 

Concle at once published two manifestoes, which 
roused France as with the blast of a trumpet. The 
eloquent prince implored the Huguenots to arm 
and attack their common enemy, and he conjured 
all true Frenchmen, whatever their creed, to couch 
their lances for the liberation of their captive sov- 
ereign, t The response was enthusiastic. Orleans 
was seized after a sanguinary battle, and there 
Concle set up his banner. This city became the 
Huguenot rendezvous.:}: 

The triumvirs, to destroy the effect of Conde's 
appeal, forced the irresponsible toy who at this 
awful moment played king, to sign and publish an 
official denial of the charges of the Bourbon prince, 
and an affirmation that both his mother and himself 
enjoyed perfect freedom ;§ but the cheat was too 
transparent, and even the reluctant pen of an old 

° The queen's letters are printed in Mem. de Conde, vol. 3, 
p. 222. 

f These manifestoes were dated, the first on the 8th, the other 
on the 25th of April, 1562. Mem. de Conde, vol. 3, pp. 222, 319. 

I La Noue, p. 554. Davila, liv. 3. Browning, p. 60. 

§ Davila, liv. 3. Duncan, p. 53. Mem. de Conde, vol. 3, 
p. 320. 



THE APPEAL TO ARMS. 



279 



contemporaneous historian, devoted to that side, 
was forced to pen these significant words : " It is 
most certain that the young king was seen by many 
to weep that day, being persuaded that the Roman- 
ist lords had restrained his personal liberty ; and 
that the queen mother, being discontented that her 
wonted arts had not prevailed, and foreseeing the 
mischiefs of the opening Avar, seemed perplexed, 
and spoke no word to any one; of which Guise 
made light, saying publicly, ' The good is always 
good, whether it proceeds from love or force.' "* 

The enthusiasm of the Huguenots was at flood- 
tide. They were very soon in possession of the 
principal cities of the provinces— Lyons, Bourges, 
Vienne, Rouen, and the rest.f All the Orleanoise 
was subjected to them, and the whole of Normandy 
declared in their favor. Levies of men were every- 
where made to swell their embattled ranks, and 
detachments flocked from every quarter, with the 
motto "God and liberty" emblazoned on their ban- 
ners, to Conde's camp. 

Brantome relates that a squadron of fifty Hu- 
guenot cavaliers set out from Metz for Orleans, and 
M. d'Espan, governor of Verdun, learning the cir- 
cumstance, determined to cut them off on the march. 
When he came up with them, they had taken a 
position in an old windmill, where they defended 
themselves with stubborn valor, until night closed 
the combat. Before morning they made a sortie, 

* Davila, liv. 3. 

f Mem. de Condi, vol. 3, passim. 



280 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



surprised their weary assailants, and routed tliem. 
The cavaliers then recommenced their march, and 
after thirty different skirmishes, they reached Or- 
leans with the loss of but three of their number, an 
incident which the quaint old chronicler justly 
thinks illustrative of remarkable pluck and zeal.* 

The leaders of the reformed host were Condi's 
nearest relatives: there were the three Chatillons, 
the cardinal, Coligny, and D'Andelot, the uncles of 
his consort; the Count Porcian, who was married to 
his niece ; Francis de Rochefoucault, who was mar- 
ried to his sister-in-law, of whom it was said that he 
could bring an army into the field composed of his 
friends and vassals in Poitou alone. The viscount 
Rene de Rohan led the Bretons, Antony, count de 
Grammont, the Gascons ; Montgomery — the count 
who had accidentally slain Henry II. in the tour- 
nament of 1559 — was present from Normandy, and 
Hangest de Genlis from Picardy. There assembled 
at Orleans in a short time three thousand gentle- 
men, of whom Lanquet says, u If they were destroy- 
ed, the very seed of masculine virtue would have 
been exterminated in France. "t 

The triumvirs received assistance not only from 
the reactionary home party, they drew upon Ro- 
manist Europe. The king of Spain, the pope, Cos- 
mo, duke of Florence, all lent jubilant levies; and 
soon the Guises marched towards Orleans at the 

* Brantome, Discours sur les .Belles Betraites ; cited in Brown- 
ing, p. 64. 

f Banke, p. 214. Duncan, p. 54. 



THE 



APPEAL TO 



ARMS. 



281 



head of ten thousand men-at-arms, the vanguard 
of the larger host to come.* 

Between the hostile ranks of Conde and Guise 
the government of a boy and a woman disappeared. 

Catharine made one last effort to regain her 
lost prestige. As usual, her weapons were hypoc- 
risy and treason. Instigated by Guise, with whom 
she appears now to have allied herself, t overawed 
perhaps by the threat that she would be deposed 
even from the nominal regency, unless she lent 
herself to the projects of the usurpers, the queen 
mother attempted to entrap Conde. 

A personal conference was appointed between 
them at Thuri.|. Cond6, unsuspicious of treachery, 
nearly fell into the snare. It was proposed that he 
and his friends should quit France for a time, while 
the triumvirs also retired from the court. " Offer 
these terms," said the wily queen in a seductive 
whisper ; " they wall certainly be refused ; then you 
will gain the credit of having made a patriotic prop- 
osition, which will augment your strength." 

The frank soldier for once attempted to play 
Machiavelli ; he was unequal to the part. Conde 
assented. After some delay, the council replied, 
" Tour terms are accepted," but no allusion was 
made to the retirement of the triumvirs.§ Conde 
was thunderstruck; his diplomatic ruse had recoiled 
upon himself; Catharine had played him false. His 



* Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 29. Duncan, p. 54. 
f Mem. de Conde, vol. 3, p. 508. Browning, p. 63. 
X Ibid. Duncan, p. 55. § Ibid. 



282 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



troops were indignant; his nobles protested against 
the validity of the contract ; the preachers inveighed 
against the regent's duplicity; and Conde, declar- 
ing that he had been deceived, retracted the agree- 
ment, and mounting his horse, bade defiance to his 
own and his country's foes.* 

This faux pas convinced the Huguenots that no 
reliance could be placed either on the friendship or 
the good faith of Catharine de' Medici. 

Conde was anxious to strengthen his cause by 
alliances with the Protestant powers of Europe. In 
Germanj^, the proofs he advanced in justification of 
his action were regarded as satisfactory. The old 
landgrave, Philip of Hesse, gave Marshal Rollshau- 
sen orders to advance into France with some thou- 
sands of lanzknechts and arquebusiers.f 

The Huguenots also dispatched a mission to 
England to sue Elizabeth for an alliance. The 
stingy queen agreed to aid them on condition that 
Havre de Grace was delivered to her as a compen- 
sation for Calais, whose loss still rankled. % This 
conceded, Elizabeth furnished one hundred thou- 
sand crowns, and garrisoned Havre de Grace, 
Dieppe, and Rouen, with six thousand English 
yeomen. § 

Towards the close of June, 1562. the contending 
armies opened 'the campaign. Cond£ and Coligny . 
left Orleans to attack Paris and deliver the king ; 



* Duncan, p. 56. 

X Davila, liv. 3, p. 236. 

57. 



f Eanke, p. 215. 
Browning, pp. 61, 62. Duncan, p. 
§ Ibid. De Thou, liv. 29. 



THE APPEAL TO ARMS. 



283 



the triumvirs quitted the metropolis to besiege the 
Huguenots in Orleans.* The two parties were 
about equal, each having ten thousand men.t 

To detail the various skirmishes which steeped 
the provinces in fraternal blood, to enumerate the 
villages plundered and razed, to record the deeds 
of cruelty committed by individual and remorseless 
leaders of roving bands attached to either army, 
would occupy volumes, and would form a narrative 
of crime hideously diversified in its features, from 
which humanity would recoil. Both sides undoubt- 
edly committed excesses. Where the Huguenots 
triumphed, they destroyed altars and broke images; 
where the papists were successful, Bibles were 
burned and heretics were racked. 

The picture of France rent by demoniacs is the 
most melancholy and pathetic that ever employed 
the pencil of an artist. Not Angelo nor Raphael 
nor Rembrandt could have originated so woful a 
canvas. 

It is an unquestionable historic fact, that in this 
drama of death the papists were the most frenzied 
and remorseless actors. The testimony of the Abb6 
Anqu6til will scarcely be impeached in the court of 
Rome. Let us see what this inimical witness has 
to sa}' : "For the heretics there was no security, no 
asylum ; the faith of treaties and the sanctity of 
oaths were alike set at naught. Tortures, contrived 
with cruel care for delaying death and increasing 
the duration of pain, were inflicted upon persons 

* Browning, p. 62. De Thou, etc. f Ibid. 



284 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



who had surrendered upon capitulation. Hus- 
bands and fathers were poignarded in the arms of 
their wives and daughters, who were then violated 
in the sight of the dying loved ones. Women and 
children were treated with a brutality which defies 
description. Aged magistrates, the victims of an 
unbridled rage, were insulted after death by the 
populace, who dragged their yet palpitating entrails 
through the streets, and even ate their quivering 
flesh."* 

Beaumont, baron des Adrets, one of the Hugue- 
not leaders, determined to meet cruelty with cru- 
elty, forgetful of the mild tenets of the faith which 
he professed to serve. He killed and laid w^aste 
with a barbarity w r hich made his own officers shud- 
der; superstitious nurses frightened children by 
the simple repetition of his name: his vengeful acts 
drew forth an admonition from the admiral, and a 
severe reproof from Calvin. t 

Beaumont's rival w-as the ferocious Blaise de 
Montluc, who relates in his memoirs, with the ut- 
most sangfroid, the chilling cruelties which he prac- 
tised upon the heretics: " I procured," he says, 
"two executioners, who w-ere called my lackeys, 
because they were so constantly with me in active 
service."X 

* Abbe Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, pp. 161, 164 ; cited 
and summarized in Browning, p. 64. 

f Beza, Hist. Eccles. D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. De Thou, liv. 
3, etc. 

% Montluc, Memoires, liv. 5, vol. 3, p. 27. Browning, p. 64. 
Concerning Baron des Adrets, "Maimbourg, whose testimony on 



THE APPEAL TO AKMS. 



285 



Thus, while France wailed and heaven wept, 
the hideous dance of the loosened furies of death 
and hell went smoothly on. 

this occasion is unquestionable, states that he blindly threw him- 
self into the Huguenot party to revenge himself upon the duke of 
Guise, who had offended him ; and the queen, wishing to injure 
that family, wrote to Des Adrets, exhorting him to destroy Guise's 
authority in Dauphiny by any means whatever, even by the aid of 
the Huguenots, and promising him her protection and authority. 

' ' But it was not necessary to know his motives for making a 
profession of Protestantism, for his conduct showed that he had 
no religion whatever. We learn from the Abbe Caveyrac that ' he 
returned sincerely to God and his king, ' but not without his re- 
sentment being again called into action ; for his cruelty excited 
such horror, that the prince of Conde sent Soubise to supersede 
him in the government of Lyons, which made him renounce the 
Protestant religion and return to the Boman church. " Browning, 
p. 65. 



286 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEK XXI. 

DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT. 

Before a fanatical conception of religion, mo- 
rality, which lies at the base of civilization and 
of human society, vanished. A kind of fatalism 
reigned. A species of resignation linked with en- 
mity, of religion mingled with hatred — this was 
what took place in these sad years. It w T as like a 
bloody Scottish feud, in which those who held the 
same principles regarded themselves as members of 
one clan. 

Both armies were in the field, and Guise espe- 
cially was viciously active. 

Navarre assailed and captured Bourges. Then 
pausing and looking towards Paris, he asked, Where 
next? 

The Triumvirate hungered for Orleans, the ren- 
dezvous and the depot of Cond6 and the Chatillons. 
Catharine said No ; she thought that if the citadel of 
Protestantism should fall, the already over-powerful 
league would shoot up to a still loftier pinnacle. 
" Let us resnatch Bouen," said the wily queen ; 
" these bulldog Englishmen have seized Norman- 
dy ; we must shake it from their greedy maw.""" 
The Parisians were cozened ; besides, the Hugue- 

* Davila, liv. 3, p. 246. De Thou, liv. 33. Mem. de Conde, 
vol. 3. Browning, p. 67. 



DEATH'S COUP D : E T A T . 



287 



not garrison of Rouen would suffer no merchandise 
to ascend the river from the sea, Inexorable Rouen 
stood guard upon the Atlantic. Trade was sulky ; 
commerce was angered. " We will give two hundred 
thousand crowns to the king, if he will drive the 
Huguenots from Rouen,' 5 * cried the Parisian mer- 
chants. Navarre marched into Normandy, and at 
the close of September, 1562, laid siege to Rouen. t 

Montgomery held the town, supported by two 
thousand English men-at-arms, twelve hundred 
choice infantry from Conde's army, four squadrons 
of horse, and one hundred gentlemen who had vol- 
unteered their services.; 1 ,; 

The attack was vigorous ; the defence was obsti- 
nate. A breach was no sooner made, than the inde- 
fatigable Montgomery threw up behind it a new 
intrenchment. " This count is a necromancer ; he 
juggles in war," said Navarre dispiritedly, as he 
returned one day from a foiled assault. § 

Mining and countermining succeeded. The Hu- 
guenot bombs fell within Navarre's lines with but 
slight effect ; burying themselves in the soil softened 
by recent rains, they only made volcanoes of mud ; 
the explosion was changed into a splash. 

At length, on the 25th of October, Guise, who 
had joined the army before Rouen, led an assault, 
after a spirited harangue, the effect of which he 
heightened by a brilliant display of chivalric valor. || 

* Vie cle Coligny, p. 269. f Ibid., p. 271. Browning, p. 67. 
X Ibid. Dayila, liv. 3, p. 250. § Mem. de Condi, vol. 4, p. 45. 
|| Brantome, to]. 8, p. 262. De Thou, liv. 33. 



283 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Bouen was captured by this coup de main; Mont- 
gomery had only time to leap into a galley which 
was in port. By the promise of liberty, he induced 
the galley-slaves to row so well, that he got to sea 
despite some chains swung across the river a few 
leagues below the city by the besiegers, to prevent 
the English sending any assistance from the ocean.* 
Shortly after, Montgomery safely touched the shores 
of Britain. 

Bouen was pillaged through three days ; many 
citizens were massacred ; the reformed preachers 
especially were hunted down with vindictive cruelty ; 
and Marloratus, who had been a central figure at 
the Poissy colloquy, was hung in front of the ca- 
thedral, amid the jeers of the brutal soldiery and 
the insults of Montmorenci and his son Montbe- 
ran.f 

That which characterizes other Bomanic races 
even at this day, the habit of repaying violent deeds 
with violent deeds, was then the general custom of 
France. The Huguenots at Orleans, as a reprisal 
for the Bouen massacres, hung the abbe Gastines, a 
violent Jesuit, and Sapin, one of the hostile presi- 
dents of the Parliament of Paris.J 

The capture of Bouen cost Navarre his life. 
Emulating the prowess of Guise, he descended into 
the trenches one day to view the town ; while there, 

* Braiitome, vol. 8, p. 262. De Thou, liv. 33. Browning, p. 67. 
f D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 1, p. 159. Mem. de Conde, 
vol. 2, p. 105. 

I Beza, Eccl. Hist., liv. 8. Brantoine, Davila, etc. 



DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT. 



289 



he was struck in the shoulder by a discharge of 
musketry. The surgeons at the outset laughed at 
the wound, and the king even desired to make a 
triumphal entry into the conquered city. Soon 
however symptoms of danger appeared. Navarre 
desired to be transported to the village of St. Maur, 
near Paris. He did not live to reach it 5 but died at 
Andelys on the 17th of November, 1562, in his 
forty-fourth year.* 

All writers who have sketched Antony of Bour- 
bon's character, describe him as deficient in every 
princely quality except personal courage. He was 
ambitious without foresight, vain without capacity, 
and intriguing without diplomatic skill. He threw 
away that noble part which fortune destined for 
him. Denying his faith, he ceased to be the head 
of a powerful party, to sink into the despised tool 
of abler rogues. 

" Antony of Bourbon, father of the firmest and 
most intrepid of men, was the weakest and least 
decided," says one of the most celebrated of French 
critics. " He was always so wavering in his relig- 
ion, that it is doubted in which faith he clied.t He 
boi*e arms against the Huguenots whom he loved, 
and served Catharine de' Medici whom he devested, 
and the party of the Guises who oppressed him."J 

* Davila, liy. 3, p. 260. De Thou, liv: 33, This historian 
says that Navarre was forty-two years of age. Browning, p. 68. 

f "Brantome states, that 'he died regretting his change of 
religion, being resolved to help the Protestants more than ever if 
lie lived, and that he sent word to that effect to the prince his 
"brother."' ^ Browning, p. 68. t Voltaire, note to "Henriade." 

Ffnervionnlt-, 1 R 



290 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



While these events were occurring in Normandy, 
the Huguenot leaders, Conde, Coligny, and D'An- 
delot, united their forces, and tempted by the ab- 
sence of the main army of the Triumvirate before 
Rouen, marched towards Paris. The prince actually 
pitched his tents at Montrouge, from wdience his 
troops pillaged the faubourgs on that side. 

This movement hastened the return of the tri- 
umvirs from the ruins of Rouen, to effect the salva- 
tion of the imperilled capital. 

Conde then determined to march into Normandy, 
and forming a junction with the English forces, se- 
cure Elizabeth's subsidy. On the 10th of Decem- 
ber he broke camp, and commenced his march. 
Guise, who had meanwhile arrived in Paris, upon 
being apprized of the prince's intention, determined 
to pursue him, and force a battle. 

Conde was overtaken near Dreux, and finding it 
impossible to avoid an action, he prepared to fight. 

Here, by the banks of the sparkling Eure, the 
first collision between the hostile armies in the 
open field occurred. The sight was a singular one. 
It seemed as if this mass of human beings had 
become a monster, and had but one mind. Each 
squadron undulated and swelled like the ring of a 
polype. They could be seen through the thick 
smoke, as it lifted brokenly here and there. It was 
a pell-mell of casques, cries, sabres ; a furious bound- 
ing of horses, a blare of trumpets ; a terrible and 

* Mem. de Tavannes, p. 267. Pasquier, vol. 2. p. 101. La 

None. p. 583. 



DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT. 



291 



disciplined tumult; over all tie cuirasses, like the 
scales of a hydra. 

Concl6 charged first. His cavalry, composed of 
the elite of the Huguenot party, cut clean through 
the enemy's centre, which was commanded by 
Montmorenci. Smitten by this resistless thunder- 
bolt, the constable tumbled from his saddle. Ris- 
ing again, he strove to redeem his position. In 
vain ; Conde's cuirassiers would not be stayed, and 
Montmorenci was ere long himself made prisoner, 
while his son Montberan, who had so recently jeered 
at the martyrdom of Marloratus in the streets of 
Eouen, lay dead before his face.* 

The battle lasted seven hours, during which 
time wavering success perched with capricious 
whim upon both banners. At the moment when 
victory seemed finally to have declared for the Hu- 
guenots, Guise, who had held himself carefully in 
reserve, t thundered down upon the conquerors, and 
wrested the hard-earned laurels from their grasp. 
By a singular reverse of fortune, Conde fell wound- 
ed, and was made a prisoner by D'Amville, Montmo- 
renci' s son. % 

The wearied and dispirited Huguenots' infantry 
were instantly panic-stricken. Guise pressed them 
fiercely, and their rout was complete.^ 

Coligny, perceiving that safety lay in retreat, 

* Hist, des Derniers Troubles, liv. 1. 

t Yie de Coligny, p. 274. Brantome, vol. 8, p. 112. 

X Brantome, voL 8, p. 113. Browning, p. 70. 

§ Vie de Coligny, p. 274. Banke, p. 217. 

II 

i 

II 



292 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



held his men well in hand, and shouting, " He who 
holds his troops together to the last carries off the 
fruit of the battle/' he commenced to retire leisurely 
and calmly to a neighboring morass, where, en- 
trenching his followers behind a pile of felled tim- 
ber, he awaited Guise's attack with nonchalance. 
At the same time the admiral, divining that Orleans 
would be the next point assailed, directed D'Ande- 
lot to collect as many of the dispersed battalions 
as possible, and hasten with them to reinforce the 
menaced city.'" 

Meantime Guise pressed on, and renewed the 
battle with great ardor. Coligny obstinately de- 
fended his position. In vain did the fiery duke 
hurl squadron after squadron upon his imperturba- 
ble lines. The marshal St. Andre at length fell; 
and Guise, glancing sadly at his terribly thinned 
ranks, desisted from the attack, and preparing to 
bivouac upon the battle-field, dispatched a courier 
to Paris to announce a victory.! 

The battle was a bloody one. Eight thousand 
dead strewed the plain.;}; 

The Huguenots were far from considering them- 
selves defeated, though Guise remained master of 
Dreux, and Coligny, after the cessation of the 
duke's assaults, continued his retreat. 

" Our infantry," wrote the admiral in a letter to 
Elizabeth of England, " has suffered a defeat with- 



* Vie de Coligny, p. 274. Eanke, p. 217. Browning, p. 70. 
t Brantome, vol. 8, p. 117, Browning, p. 70. La Noue, vol. 
5 > P- 7. l Ibid. Davila, liv. 3. 



DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT. 293 



out fighting ; but our cavalry, which alone fougnt the 
battle, is undamaged, and wishes for nothing more 
ardently than to meet once more without delay the 
enemies of God and of this kingdom. These will 
deliberate whether to attack us, or to await an attack 
from our side.* 

Guise was wonderfully elated by his success, 
disputed as it was. The first account of the battle 
which reached Paris ascribed the victory to Conde. 
"Well then," said Catharine coolly, "we shall have 
to pray to God in French. "f And when she re- 
ceived the second report from Dreux, she was far 
from expressing joy at the event. The death of St. 
Andre and Montmorenci's captivity delivered Guise 
from all rivals ; no one shared his triumphs. The 
duke wrote a letter, demanding the disposal of St. 
Andre's baton in so arrogant a tone, that young 
Charles himself was astonished.;!; 

Conde, in his captivity, was treated with politic 
kindness. Guise conducted him to his quarters; 
they supped together, and the prince accepted the 
offer of half the duke's bed.§ He was afterwards 
taken to court, where Catharine exerted herself to 
win him from the Huguenot party, a task which she 
did not esteem very formidable, since, removed from 
the counsels of the inflexible Coligny, she thought- 
he might be easily biassed. 

* Coligny's letter to queen Elizabeth, cited in Banke, p. 218. 
f Voltaire's second note to the " Henriade." 
t Vieilleville, vol. 5, p. 7. Browning, p. 71. 
§ Brantome, vol. 8, p. 218. Duncan, p. 60. 

1 



294 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Montraorenci was taken to Orleans, where Lis 
niece, the princess of Conde, used every persuasive 
measure which she could devise to reconcile her 
uncle and her husband ; all however to no purpose. 
The sulky veteran only growled and swore. 45 " 

Meanwhile Guise led his victorious squadrons to 
the Orleanoise, and laid close and resolute siege to 
the Huguenot citadel. 

D'Andelot's defence of Orleans was as skilful 
as the duke's assault. While the fate of the city 
hung undecided, murder stepped between the com- 
batants, and dictated a decision : Guise was assas- 
sinated.t 

In the dusk of the evening the duke went to 
superintend the erection of some redoubts. While 
the party trotted pleasantly along, chatting and 
laughing, a shot was fired from behind a hedge, and 
three balls lodged in Guise's left shoulder. The 
shock made him stagger ; but he only said, " This 
was to be expected ; but I think it will be nothing." J 
He was carried to his tent, when the surgeons, on 
examining the wound, pronounced the bullets to 
have been steeped in poison. § 

Upon his death-bed he expressed regret for 
many of the occurrences of his violent, ambitious, 
and warlike career ; but this late repentance served 
but to inflict upon him sharper pangs of remorse. 

* Browning, p. 71. 

f La None, p. 503. Vie de Coligny, p. 282. Duncan, p. 60. 
t Brantome, vol. 8, p. 126. Vie de Coligny, p. 287. Brown- 
ing, p. 71. § Ibid. 



DEATH'S COUP D'ETAT. 



295 



The massacre of Vassy tormented his conscience, 
which could neither be soothed by all the paeans 
of the priests, nor quieted by the hymns of the Pa- 
risians. 

On the 4th of March, 1563, eight days after the 
infliction of the fatal wound, this celebrated soldier 
heaved his last sigh. 

This event stirred France profoundly. The 
animated attacks upon Orleans suddenly ceased. 
The famous Triumvirate crumbled to pieces. Na- 
varre, St. Andre, and Guise were lost to Borne. 

The duke's assassin was finally arrested and 
put to the torture. He was a madman named Pal- 
trot.* What was called a " confession" was wrung 
from his crazy lips, which implicated several of the 
Huguenot chiefs in a plot to butcher Guise. Bos- 
su6t accuses Coligny and Beza of having instigated 
the insane zealot to commit the crime ; but the elo- 
quent Frenchman, with all his subtlety, could not 
twist the circumstances of the case into giving color 
to the charge. All impartial chroniclers have ac- 
quitted these illustrious and unspotted Christians 
of any participation in so odious a deed. History 
dismissed the accusation to contempt. t 

Yet despite Coligny 's published and reiterated 
denial at the time, Henry de Guise persisted in 
charging the admiral with his father's murder ; and 
young as he was at the time, he swore against him 

* Dayila, liv. 3, p. 87. Brantonie, vol. 8, p. 120, etc. 
f Duncan, p. ,60. See the very elaborate consideration of this 
matter in Browning, pp. 72-77. 



296 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



an unrelenting hatred, which was only appeased by 
one of the bloodiest catastrophes in history.* 

"With the dissolution of the Triumvirate there 
came a general pause. Death's coup de main startled 
France. The genius of civil war halted for a mo- 
ment before the bier of Francis Guise. 



* Duncan, p. 61. 



THE HOLLOW TEUCE. 



297 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE HOLLOW TEUCE. 

By the death of Guise, Catharine cle' Medici re- 
gained supreme power. Her first act was to intrigue 
for tranquillity. Every insidious art was employed 
to cajole Conde into signing a treaty of peace. The 
Chatillons were absent in the field. Their inflexi- 
ble spirit insured the continuance of the war until 
liberty was guaranteed, unless some disgraceful 
concession could be won from the prince. 

The Huguenot sky never looked so bright. 
Hardly a cloud spotted the horizon. Two of the 
triumvirs were dead; the third was a prisoner. 
Every thing was propitious for a liberal and right- 
eous peace. The reformers congratulated one an- 
other, and said, "The wished-for day has come." 

Suddenly these hopes were dashed ; a courier 
arrived in Coligny's camp one morning, and flung 
this announcement into the admiral's face like a 
thunderbolt : " Peace is declared ; Conde orders 
arms grounded."* The messenger then circulated 
an edict which had just been ratified at Amboise. 
This was eagerly scanned by the surprised Hugue- 
nots. It contained a permission for the reformers 
to assemble for the exercise of their religion in 



* Mem. de Conde. Vie de Coligny. Brantome. etc. 
13* 



298 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



those towns winch were in their possession on the 
day the edict was signed ; but the general permis- 
sion to preach in the country places, contained in 
the preceding edict of January, 1562, was consider- 
ably curtailed. The lords high justiciaries could 
only convene their friends and neighbors on the 
demesnes of their seignories. The nobles were only 
allowed to hear their preachers in their own cha- 
teaux, and even that indulgence was withheld if they 
resided in a city or territory over which a Roman- 
ist governor exercised judicial power. The decree 
contained neither censure nor amnesty ; but declar- 
ing that Cond6 and his friends were good and faith- 
ful subjects, buried the past in oblivion.* 

Such was the niggardly decree to which Cond^, 
without consulting his friends, had irrevocably set 
his hand. The Huguenots were indignant. D'An- 
delot was chagrined. " Alas," said Coligny, " our 
prince has injured the Reformed church more by 
this stroke of his pen, than the Triumvirate could 
have done in ten years with all their armies."t 

Sadly and dejectedly the admiral dismissed his 
old companions in arms, paying them great atten- 
tion, that he might, in case of need, calculate upon 
their speedy aid. $ 

Catharine was displeased at this precaution ; 
but when she complained of it to Concle, he silenced 
her by replying, " Nay, madame, this conduct of 

* Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, torn. 1, p. 150. Duncan, p. 62. 
f Vie de Coligny, p.. 291. Hist, du Concile de Trente, p. 674 
t Ibid. 



THE HOLLOW TRUCE. 



299 



Coligny ought to be attributed solely to a grateful 
desire to acquit his obligations to the nobility ; sure 
5 t is the least he could do for those who quitted 
home and friends to serve our cause."' 1 ' 

The queen mother was doubly provoked at this 
unexpected speech ; she had done her utmost to 
convince Conde that Coligny's influence was preju- 
dicial to his own. She now perceived how cautious 
Conde was of taking the bait ; indeed she feared 
the prince saw into her treacherous design ; she 
therefore referred no more to the subject, but re- 
doubled her blandishments. f 

One clause of the recent treaty bound the Hu- 
guenots to unite with the royal forces in expelling 
the English from Xormandy.;J: 

Conde, conscious that nothing could justify him 
in admitting the hereditary foemen of France once 
more into the kingdom, and entrenching them 
within important strong-holds, proffered his ser- 
vices for their dislodgment.§ 

The prince's offer was accepted, and ere long 
he returned to Paris^ from this expedition com- 
pletely successful. France was no longer dismem- 
bered ; no hostile foot profaned her soil. 

Elizabeth of England was very indignant at the 
loss of Havre de Grace, which she hoped would 
have compensated her for Calais. ""When the 

s Mem. de Conde, vol. 2, p. 163. Brooming, p. 78. 
f Mem. de Conde, vol. "2, p. 163. 
t PaHayicini, lib. 20, p. 407. Browning, p. 78 
§ Ibid. Mem. de Conde, vol. 2, p. 175. 



303 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



admiral again -desires my assistance, I shall know 
how to act," said the maiden queen.* But when 
her anger subsided, she observed, "The king 
of France is happy in having such faithful sub- 
jects."! 

Condi's star was now at its zenith. As he had 
distinguished himself by his bravery in the field, so 
now he desired to shine through his versatility, by 
taking part in the knightly festivities of the court, 
in which it was then the fashion to represent the 
heroic fables of the Greeks.:); His wit and vivacity 
made him a great favorite. All restraint was re- 
moved by the recent death of his excellent wife 
Eleanora du Eoye ; and Cond6, whose amorous 
disposition disposed him to fall an easy prey to the 
intrigues of the queen, frittered away his time and 
strength in dissolute and infamous orgies.§ 

The condition of the Huguenots now became as 
bad as it had ever been. Encroachments upon 
the edict of Amboise were of constant occurrence. 
The Protestants would not submit without attempt- 
ing to defend their rights. The consequence w T as, 
that the uneasy kingdom fretted under the abnor- 
mal pacification — a name without a substance. The 
Huguenots inundated France with apologies, com- 
plaints, and remonstrances — some addressed to the 
king, some to the queen, but most to Conde, who 

* Vie de Coligny, p. 297. t Ibid, 

t Banke, pp. 223, 224. 

§ Browning, p. 81. Huguenots in France and America, vol. 
1, p. 100. 



THE HOLLOW TRUCE. 



301 



was generally held responsible for the strict fulfil- 
ment of the treaty, since he had signed it.* 

But Catharine had so artfully engrossed the for- 
getful prince in lewd amusements, he was so sur- 
rounded with every charm and variety of pleasure, 
that he had neither time to think nor heart to be- 
stir himself on behalf of imperilled liberty of con- 
science, t 

The noblesse were ensnared in a similar man- 
ner. Catharine's maids of honor, young and beau- 
tiful, but abandoned girls, were the syrens em- 
ployed to captivate the more worldly and impressi- 
ble of the Huguenot leaders. Treachery was the 
leading feature in the queen mother's policy ; her 
aim being bad, she naturally was not scrupulous as 
to her means, and the morals of her licentious court 
would be exposed to but little scrutiny. Those of 
her pimps, men or women, who were most success- 
ful in their infamous work, received the highest 
honor. Thus it was that those twin devils, debauch- 
ery and perfidy, were the earliest and most intimate 
companions of Charles IX. 

Thus was the Reformation compromised by its 
political chiefs. While the current ran in lowlier 
channels, it coursed unwaveringly to the sea. The 
alliance of the nobles lowered the religious morale. 
The fervor of Calvin, the eloquence of Beza never 
injured the cause they loved ; the treason of Na- 
varre, the licentious coxcombry of Conde, wasting 

* De Thou. liv. 35. Mem. de Conde, vol. 2, p. 180. 
t Browning, p. 81. 



302 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



precious hours lapped in the arms of Catharine's 
dancing syrens, melted, like a common fop, in baths 
and perfumes — these worked God's cause incalcu- 
lable mischief. 

It is a pity, some say, that the noblesse gath- 
ered under the Huguenot banner ; why, query oth- 
ers, did Beza's pulpit stoop to preach politics ? 

Great moral movements necessarily and inevi- 
tably bubble over into politics. If politics invade 
the domain of morals, if diplomacy attempts to 
strangle religion, if iniquity enthrones itself in law, 
then it becomes the preacher's duty with one hand 
to appeal to the state for redress, and with the other 
to uncloak the cheat. This was what Luther did. 
This was what Calvin did. They desired to preach 
Christ. The state said, No. Then the reformers 
created a party in the state whose circumstances 
enabled them, to obtain the required liberty to 
preach God's word. 

In this sense, wherever statutes withhold per- 
mission to proclaim salvation, if men's thoughts 
influence their laws, it is the duty of the pulpit to 
preach politics. If it were possible to conceive of 
a community whose opinions had no effect upon 
their government, there Beza and Calvin and Luther 
would have no call to impeach bad laws and ungodly 
policies. But those worthies knew of no such com- 
munity. The czar, at the head of a government 
whose constitution knows no check but poison and 
the dagger, yet pauses when he hears his subjects 
growl. The sultan dared to murder his janizaries 



THE HOLLOW TRUCE. 



303 



only when the streets came to liate tliein as much 
as he did. Though sheltered by Roman despotism, 
Herod and the chief priests abstained from this 
and that because they "feared the people." Cer- 
tainly then there can be no question that the ratio- 
nale of the reformers was right. 

At all events, the pontiffs never scrupled to bring 
the pressure of public opinion to bear upon govern- 
mental action. In the early years of the reign of 
Charles IX., Pius IV. directed the politics of the 
Vatican. This crafty pope perceived that the tem- 
poral authority of his see would be undermined if 
the Huguenots could enjoy religious liberty; his 
object therefore was to make them hateful to the 
French government. 

To prevent the clergy from giving the Reforma- 
tion countenance, he determined to punish those 
prelates who had either wholly adopted the new 
theology, or had at least tolerated it. He excom- 
municated the cardinal of Chatillon, St. Eomain 
archbishop of Aix, Montluc bishop of Valence, 
Caraccioli of Troyes, Barbangon of Pomiers, and 
Guillart of Chartres, all of whom were summoned 
to appear before him and account for their con- 
duct.* 

Pope Pius' audacity saved these prelates from 
his wrath. He cited the queen of Navarre to give 
an account of her faith ; and if within the space of 
six months she did not appear before him, he de- 
clared that she should be proscribed, convicted of 

8 Hist, du Concile de Trente, p. 769. Browning, p. 81. 



304 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



heresy by default, and deprived of her kingdom, 
which should be given to the first occupant.* 

This insolent assault upon a crowned head and 
a near relative of the king of France, caused a 
strong remonstrance to be filed by the French am- 
bassador at Rome ; in consequence the bull was 
withdrawn, and affairs remained in statu quo.f 

Upon the heels of the pope's rescinded bull 
trudged a new edict ; it was called a declaration, 
and was avowedly to explain the obscurities of that 
of Amboise, but in reality to curtail once more the 
rights of the Huguenots. [J: 

The month of December, 1563, was rendered 
remarkable by the conclusion of the Council of 
Trent, one of the most famous of the Roman syn- 
ods. Long before the doctrines of Calvin had be- 
come popular in France, Germany, embracing Mar- 
tin Luther's evangelical opinions, demanded the 
convocation of a general council to settle disputed 
points of orthodoxy. Finally Paul III., who then 
wore the tiara, yielded to the request, and in the 
year 1537 selected Mantua as the ecclesiastical ren- 
dezvous ; but the sovereign duke of that city refused 
his consent, in consequence of which the assembly 
was transferred to Vicenza, and postponed to 1538. 
Various contingencies delayed the conference till 
1542, when Paul convened the council at Trent.§ 

* The bull is dated Sept. 28, 1563, and is to be found in extenso 
in Mem. de Conde, vol. 4. 

f Hist, du Concile de Trente, p. 796. Mem. de Conde, vol. 4, 
p. 680. J Browning, p. 81. 

§ Hist, du Concile de Trente. 



THE HOLLOW TRUCE. 



305 



From that date the sessions dragged their slow 
length along, amid constant and frivolous adjourn- 
ments, through twenty-one tedious years, during 
which time the dogmatism, the bigotry, and the 
tergiversations of the council, wholly devoted to 
Rome — there was not a Lutheranist or Calvinist 
present — so disgusted the Protestants, that they 
refused to recognize its authority, or to be bound 
by its decrees. 

Pius IV. had renewed the sessions and pressed 
for a decision, because he was persuaded that un- 
less some fixed principles were adopted, to which 
the floating creed of the Vatican could be anchored 
in case of need, the most sincere adherents of the 
holy see might be seduced into heresy by the argu- 
ments of those who claimed the right of interpret- 
ing the holy Scriptures for themselves.* 

The different discussions during the twenty-five 
sessions of the council, embraced the whole range 
,of subjects which affected the purse, wealth, and 
supremacy of the court of Piome.t The decrees 
were prefaced in this style : " The holy (Ecumenic 
Council, legitimately assembled under the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit, the apostolical legates presid- 
ing.'^ But as the various pontiffs had the council 
completely under their control, no latitude of dis- 
cussion was permitted, no breath of liberality stir- 
red the murky air. Instead of deliberating upon 
the spiritual interests of Christendom, for effecting 

* Browning, p. 82. 

t Ibid. Hist, du Concile de Trente. passim. { Ibid. 



306 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



an abolition of the superstitions and corruptions 
which were the grounds of Luther's terrible attacks, 
it was only proposed that one or two of the more 
glaring abuses should be slightly modified, while 
additional authority was conferred in every point 
in which the councils and traditions of the church 
were at variance with the Scriptures. Thus what 
was professedly intended to reform the Roman 
communion, served only to confirm its errors. 

How could this be otherwise, when the council 
was packed with the creatures of the pontiff, whose 
number he could increase at his pleasure, while the 
most learned and evangelical divines of Europe at 
large were never invited to shed over the discus- 
sions the light of their luminous counsel, when even 
those papists who ventured to differ with the leg- 
ates upon trivialities were speedily gagged?* 

The last act of the council was to establish the 
absurd dogma of the pope's infallibility ;f and it 
was observed at the time that the "Holy Spirit," oL 
which the decrees spoke, " was sent from Rome in 
a portmanteau. "J 

So greatly did the ultramontane interest predom- 
inate in the decrees of the Council of Trent, that 
even the papists of France w^ould not submit incon- 
siderately to their reception. § A celebrated law- 

* Hist, du Concile cle Trente, passim. Browning, p. 82. Tur- 
retin, Hist. Eccles. 

f Fra Paolo, Hist, du Concile de Trente. Maimbourg, Hist, 
du Lutheranisrne. 

X Turretin, Hist. Eccles. Browning, p. 82. 

§ Kanke, p. 225. 



THE HOLLOW TRUCE. 



307 



yer, Charles clu Moulin, published a memoir, show- 
ing that the council was null and vicious, contrary 
to former decrees, and prejudicial alike to the pre- 
rogatives of the crown and to the liberties of the 
Gallican church.* He was arrested for this while 
upon the steps of the Palace of Justice, and that 
circumstance nearly caused a tumult, for the whole 
legal profession felt indignant that an advocate who 
honored the law so highly should be treated like a 
malefactor for a legal writing. The clerks were in- 
cited to attempt a rescue. The conciergerie, how- 
ever, being close at hand, the guard hustled their 
victim within its walls and shut the gate, thus by a 
prompt flight escaping the vengeance of their pur- 
suers, t 

No sooner did this affair reach Coligny than he 
made the case his own, for he had encouraged De 
Moulin to publish the memoir; he went to the 
queen mother, and by a full representation of the 
facts and the probable result of the incarceration, 
soon obtained an order for the advocate's re- 
lease. :[; 

As the king's minority had afforded the pretext 
for many of the attempts against the government, 
Catharine was desirous that he should be declared 
of age ; that measure could not affect her influence 
over the boy, while it would protect her from the 
intrusion of meddlers. In 1563, Charles entered 

* Mem. de Conde, vol. 5, p. 81, et seq. Ranke, p. 225. 

t Mem. de Conde, vol. 5, pp. 86, 87. Vie de Coligny, p. 301. 

J Matthieu, Histoire de France, vol. 1. 



308 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



his fourteenth year, the age fixed by a law of 
Charles the Wise as marking the majority of the 
king.* 

After some manoeuvring this point was gained, 
and the royal party then set out upon a tour of ob- 
servation through France. t As the brilliant retinue 
of the young monarch passed through the country, 
the populace crowded to salute the king with their 
acclamations. The court first tafried at Lorraine, 
where a number of fetes were given in honor of the 
visit. But though Catharine's policy made her 
countenance these lavish revels, since "thereby she 
caught many gudgeons," the wily queen was very 
far from permitting herself to be engrossed by the 
follies she set afoot. Availing herself of this oppor- 
tunity, she negotiated with the neighboring German 
princes, for the purpose of persuading them to re- 
strain their subjects from arming to aid the Hugue- 
nots in case of another civil convulsion in France ;J 
her efforts, hoAvever, were not crowned with full 
success. 

From Lorraine, Charles journeyed into the south 
of France. At Avignon the queen met a special 
legate from the pope, a Florentine, and Pius' con- 
fidant. While the besotted court was amused with 
pageants, this precious pair had an interview of 
long duration. Catharine is supposed upon this 
occasion to have opened her full budget of perfi- 



* Matthieu, Histoire de France, vol. 1. 
f Browning, p. 83. 

t Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 309. Davila, liv 3, p. 329. 



THE HOLLOW TRUCE. 



309 



dies, for tlie nuncio was reported to have been 
" merveilleusement satisfait"* 

On the 10th of June, 1565, the court arrived at 
Bayonne. Here the king met his sister the queen 
of Spain, who had been dispatched by her husband 
Philip II. as an unconscious instrument in a hid- 
eous plot.f She was accompanied by a splendid 
suite led by Alvarez de Toledo, duke of Alva, cele- 
brated for his atrocities in the Low Countries^ an 
envoy quite equal, by his talents and his sanguinary, 
bigoted temper, to the infamous commission con- 
fided to him. 

Here, at Bayonne, it was that while the French 
and Spanish courts endeavored to outvie each oth- 
er's pageantry — for it was a peculiarity of Catha- 
rine de' Medici, that when she plotted most infa- 
mously she hid her intrigues behind a pageant — 
that Alva and the queen mother hatched the mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew^ 



By a gallery which she had ordered to be con- 
structed to connect her apartments with those of 
her daughter, she conversed every night with the 
duke of Alva.il Here the monster duke and the 
serpent -like queen discussed the best means of 
extirpating French heresy;^ sitting there in the 

G Mahnbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, liv. 5. Davila, liv. 3. 
f Browning, p. 84. 

J Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, vol. 1. 

§ Browning, p. 8L Duncan, p. 66. Ranke, p. 227. 

|| De Thou, liv. 37. 

IT "Les Reynes de France et d'Espagne a Bayonne, assisties 
du Due d'Albe, resolvent la Ruine des Heretiques en France et 



310 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



gloom, like two conspirators, they agreed upon the 
adoption of one of two plans : to expel the whole 
body of Huguenot preachers from the country, or 
else to assassinate at one stroke the four or six 
unhappy men who stood at the head of the party, 
and whose loss was supposed to be irreparable.* 

"Ten thousand frogs are not worth the head of 
one salmon," cried Alva when speaking of the con- 
templated massacre. The young prince of Beam, 
afterwards Henry IV., who was with the royal party 
on this tour, and whose penetration was far beyond 
his years — he was then but twelve — treasured up 
this expression, which he accidentally overheard, 
and considered applicable to Conde and Coligny. 
He repeated the words to his mother, Jane d'Al- 
bret, who warned the prince and the admiral that 
sly mischief was afoot.f 

Revolving in her mind these " mortal accidents 
for the ruin of the state," Catharine concluded the 
royal progress, and in 1566 convened an assembly 
of the Notables at Moulins. Her chief object now 
was to lull all suspicion to sleep ; and then, when 
the Huguenots were entrapped, to give them the 
coup de grace. If the Samson of reform could be 
won to recline in the lap of this Delilah, she felt 
competent to insure that when she pronounced the 
words, " Samson, the Philistines be upon thee," the 

Flandres." Mem. de Tayannes, p. 282. Strada's history also men- 
tions it. Browning, p. 84, note. 
* Banke, p. 227. 

t Matthieu, Hist, de France, torn. 1, p. 283. Duncan 5 pp. 67, 

68, etc. 



THE HOLLOW TEUCE. 



311 



undone Hercules should not have the strength to 
rise and avert his fate. 

We shall see how well Catharine succeeded. 

The result of the conference at Moulins was the 
promulgation of an edict which settled many con- 
troverted points of jurisprudence, and which, in 
reference to religion, ordered that the former de- 
crees should be solemnly confirmed.* 

Had there been any sincerity in the professions 
of Charles, or had honesty swayed the counsels of 
his authoritative advisers, the privileges and disa- 
bilities of the Huguenots would have been clearly 
and fundamentally fixed by this edict. But though 
there was a general ratification of prior decrees, all 
of which had been distorted by unfair constructions 
put upon essential clauses, yet it was so loosely 
worded as to leave all the main principles in confu- 
sion and incertitude. Indeed the court had no wish 
to establish any definitive settlement of the ques- 
tions at issue ; on the contrary, it was their inten- 
tion to leave all the mooted points in such a fluctu- 
ating and doubtful state, as to render the constant 
interference of the royal council necessary; by these 
means it was hoped gradually to fritter away all the 
protective securities of religious liberty.f 

Through these perfidious negotiations the queen 
mother had great difficulty in restraining the bel- 
ligerent bigotry of the young king, whose hatred of 
the Huguenots was only equalled by his dissimula- 

% Vie de Coligny, p. 314 Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 37. 
f Duncan, p 69. 



i 



312 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tion ; for though yet a mere boy, he masked his real 
opinions with a wiliness and duplicity which de- 
ceived the oldest and craftiest courtiers.* Every 
fresh demand of the Huguenots for the extension 
of their privileges, or for the protection of those 
already conceded, roused his choler. 

One day he broke out in great anger against the 
admiral: "It is not long since," said he, "that you 
were satisfied with being merely tolerated by the or- 
thodox ; now you claim to be their equals ; presently 
you will wish to be supreme." The habitual caution 
of Coligny kept him silent. Charles left him ab- 
ruptly, rushed into the apartment of the chancellor, 
and exclaimed, " The duke of Alva was right ; heads 
held so high are dangerous to a state ; tact and skill 
are useless, for they may be parried by the same 
weapons. "We can only keep our ascendency by 
force. "t 

Catharine also was heard to mutter darkly that 
" ere long the ancient faith would have few enemies 
in France. "J 

Below the deceitful calm which smiled above, 
these ominous words presaged St. Bartholomew. 

* Duncan, p. 71. Mem. de Conde. Brantome, etc. 
t Ibid. 

J Browning, Vie de Coligny, Mem. de Conde, etc. 



THE WAE RECOMMENCED. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

RECOMMENCEMENT OF THE W A R . 

The treaty of pacification gave no satisfaction 
to either party. As in all compromises upon vital 
questions, one side esteemed that too much had 
been conceded ; the other thought that assured 
triumph had been bartered to obtain a hollow 
and treacherous edict. Gloomy and suspicious, 
all France rested upon arms ; while the Huguenot 
chiefs, fearful of Catharine's poisoner or of the steel 
of her bravos, quitted the dangerous vicinage of 
Paris for a safer residence.* . 

No sooner had the champions of the Reforma- 
tion left the court, than the cardinal of Lorraine, 
plotting busy mischief, arrived at St. Germaine, and 
resumed his seat at the council board. t Notwith- 
standing his apparent moderation and the vacilla- 
tion of his ordinary conduct, this consummate in- 
triguer was ever the same — unchangeable in his 
views, and, despite of all reconciliation, implacable. 
The effects of his presence were soon visible. 

The king of Spain, determined to exterminate 
the Protestants of the Netherlands, designed, at the 
commencement of 1567, to march an army, under 
Alva, by the route of Savoy and the mountain chain 

« Ranke, p. 229. f Ibid. 

Huguenots. " 14: 



314 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



of Lorraine skirting the French frontier, into the 
Low Countries.* 

The plotters at Paris eagerly seized this pretext 
to augment the army. Catharine expressed great 
alarm lest France should be invaded by the Span- 
iards. Avowedly to avert the menaced danger, six 
thousand Swiss were taken into the pay of the gov- 
ernment, new captains were appointed to the civic 
militia of Paris, and the companies of the Jiommes 
d'armes were raised to their full complements 

At first the Huguenots took the bait. Concl6, 
with Hotspur impetuosity, even tendered his servi- 
ces to guard the frontier. J But ere long their sus- 
picions were aroused. It was perceived that all 
stations of trust were bestowed exclusively upon 
Romanist officers, and that Alva, so far from meet- 
ing with any opposition, received the warmest of 
welcomes and the heartiest, was supplied with abun- 
dant provisions, and trod through France amid an 
ovation. 

The keen eye of the sleepless admiral instantly 
pierced into the depths of Catharine's perfidious 
policy. A secret council of the Huguenot chiefs 
was speedily convened at his residence, Chatillon- 
sur-Loing* It was determined to foil stratagem by 
stratagem. French history teaches that that party 
which is master of the court can alone accomplish 

* Duncan, p. 72. Davila, liv. 3. Motley, Eise of the Dutch ' 
Rep., vol. 1. 

f Ranke, p. 230. Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 37. 
t Mem. de Conde, vol. 2. 



THE WAK BECOMMEXCED. 



315 



its designs ;* therefore, since it had been ascer- 
tained that Catharine had resolved to imprison 
-Conde for life, put Coligny to death, distribute the 
Swiss to garrison Paris, Orleans, and Poitiers, and 
to revoke all edicts of tolerance and pacification, 
that the extermination of the reformers might pro- 
ceed unfettered by statutes, the wary Huguenots 
determined to take the initiative — by a grand coup 
d'etat, to elope with the court. f 

In the secrecy with which this plan was formed, 
and in the rapidity and precision of its execution, 
the learned men of the age could find nothing in 
history to be compared with it, without going back 
to the times of Mithridates king of Pontus.:|: 

The court was sojourning at Monceaux, near 
Meaux, in an open residence, quite unsuspicious of 
danger.§ Catharine, steeped to the lips in treach- 
ery, was now caught napping ; the biter was nearly 
bitten. At the critical moment however, the king- 
was warned, and he returned to Paris under the 
escort of his Swiss, whose steady, disciplined valor 
beat back the headlong charges of Conde's cava- 
liers.! 

But though foiled, the Huguenots were not dis- 
heartened. Conde pressed forward, and encamped 
before the capital. His head-quarters were at St. 
Dennis, from whence his troops blockaded the city, 

. * La None, Memoires, chap. 47, p. 169. 
f Tie de Coligny, p. 325. La Xoue, p. 609. Davila, liv, 3. 
% Davila, liv. 3. De Thou, liv. 37. Eanke, p. 231. 
§ Ibid. Duncan, p. 73. 
|| Vie de Coligny, p. 328. Browning, p. 91. 



316 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



destroyed the mills, mastered the river, and fortified 
all the surrounding castles which commanded the 
main roads.* . , 

Tedious and subtle negotiations ensued. The 
Huguenots demanded the general, distinct, and 
irrevocable guarantee of religious toleration, com- 
plete and public, as the essential basis of pacifica- 
tion. The court not only refused this concession, 
but speaking through the octogenarian lips of Mont- 
morenci, declared that those indulgences which had 
been granted to the heretics were always intended 
to be temporary ; that the king had now determined 
upon their revocation, since henceforth he would 
permit no lisp of any religion in France save that 
of Eome.t 

The decision was then left to the arbitrament of 
battle. The royal army, much the more numerous 
and the best equipped, sallied out, and led on by 
the old constable in person, charged Cond6 upon 
the plain of St. Dennis. A sanguinary battle en- 
sued ; Montmorenci himself, the scarred veteran of 
a hundred fights, fell mortally wounded ; and the 
Huguenots, borne back by stress of numbers, rested 
at a little distance from St. Dennis, with unbroken 
ranks and undiminished ardor. The field and the 
spoil remained to the royalists, but the honor of the 
day belonged to the vastly outnumbered Hugue- 
nots.J The admiral commanded; and Marshal Ta- 

* Yie de Coligny, p. 328. Browning, p. 91. La None, p. 614 

f Davila, liv. 4. De Thon, liv. 42. 

t Browning, p. 92. Brantome, vol. 6, p. 420. 



THE WAE KECOMMENCED. 317 



vannes, himself an accomplished soldier, said admir- 
ingly, " Faut confesser que VAmiral de Coligny estoit 
Capittane."* 

Montmorenci was taken to Paris, where he 
shortly died. " Those who speak without passion 
of the constable," says Davila, who knew the old 
soldier well and personally, " give him three prin- 
cipal attributes : that he was a good captain, a lov- 
ing servant, but a bad friend ; for in all his actions 
he was ever swayed by the single consideration of 
himself."t 

Brantome bears this quaint testimony to his 
piety : " He never failed in his devotions ; for every 
morning he would repeat his paternosters, whether 
he was in the house or on horseback among his 
troops ; which caused the saying, ' Beware of the 
constables paternosters ; for while he was repeating 
them and muttering the creed, as occasion pre- 
sented he w r ould cry, £ Go hang up such a one ; 
tie this man to a tree ; run that fellow through with 
your pikes this instant ; shoot all those fellows be- 
fore me ; cut in pieces those vagabonds who wish 
to hold yon church against the king ; burn me 
this village :' and such sentences of justice or war 
he would utter without leaving off his paternosters 
until he had quite finished them, thinking that to 
defer them to another time would be to commit a 
great error, so conscientious was he."J 

At the solicitation of Conde, John Casimir of 



* Tavannes, Memoirs, p. 88. 
f Davila, liv. 4, p. 117. 



\ Brantome. vol. 7. p. 76. 



318 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the palatinate, who was zealous for his creed, and 
always ready to battle for it, entered France at the 
head of seven "thousand five hundred cavalry and 
some thousands of infantry, to assist the Hugue- 
nots ; not, as he said, to resist the French king, but 
to protect his coreligionists against the enemies of 
their persons and their faith.* 

Conde and Casimir formed a junction shortly 
after the stricken field' of St. Dennis, and directed 
their united march towards Paris, pausing on the 
way to capture Chartres.t 

The Huguenots had agreed to pay their German 
auxiliaries one hundred thousand crowns ; the mil- 
itary chest contained but two thousand. What was 
to be done? Condi's army served without pay; 
they had suffered severely in the retreat from St, 
Dennis in the most rigorous season of the year ; 
their provisions were scanty, and regiment after 
regiment walked barefooted. To all these priva- 
tions they cheerfully submitted for conscience 5 sake. 
It was doubtful whether this impoverished and fro- 
zen host would exert themselves to discharge the 
claims of the Germans. The experiment was tried; 
it was successful : thirty thousand crowns were 
raised at once by voluntary contribution, and Cas- 
imir's followers were satisfied.:!: History records no 
circumstance more extraordinary, or which more 
finely illustrates the influence of religions principle. 

While the Huguenot army lay before Chartres, 

* Banke, p. 233. f Davila, liv. 4. De Thou, liv. 42. etc. 
X Duncan, p. 79. 



THE WAE RECOMMENCED. 



319 



Catharine, alarmed by the formidable danger which 
menaced her government, had recourse once more 
to vicious diplomacy : she granted the reformers 
what they had demanded from the beginning, the 
complete restoration of the original edict of pacifi- 
cation.'' 

Both Conde and Coligny were dissatisfied. They 
wanted guarantees. t But the gentry, fatigued by 
an arduous campaign, longed for their homes ; they 
imagined that their object was accomplished; they 
hoped to " honor God and serve the king in peace." 
Very reluctantly the Huguenot chiefs disarmed. 
Trusting God, they yet " kept their powder dry." 

After the ratification of peace, the German troop- 
ers left France. The Huguenots insisted that the 
Spanish and Swiss auxiliaries of the court should 
also depart. Spite of this protest, they were re- 
tained. This distinction between the foreign levies 
Sufficiently announced the hollowness and insincer- 
ity of the recent negotiations. Presently events 
proved that the reenacted edict was only a conces- 
sion wrung from the reluctant fear of the perfidi- 
ous court — a concession made only to be broken. 
Distrust and suspicion everywhere arose.;'; Every 
possible discourtesy was shown to the admiral, to 
D'Andelot, and even to Conde, § while the Huguenot 
masses were exposed to an infinite variety of petty 
vexations. The papist pulpits resounded with invec- 



* Daviia, liv. 4. De Thou, liv. 42. Ranke, p. 234. 
f Ibid. Vie de Coligny, p. 333. 

% Duncan, p. 81. Vie de Coligny, p. 352. § Ibid. 



320 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tives against the heretics, with seditious reflections 
on the recent peace, and with clamorous exhorta- 
tions to break it. The clergy had become inocu- 
lated with the virus of Jesuitism; and digging up 
from its grave of three hundred years the infamous 
maxim of Innocent III., they openly proclaimed 
that "no faith should be kept with heretics," and 
that their massacre was just, pious, and conducive 
to salvation.* 

These inflammatory ravings provoked constant 
tumults, and occasioned frequent assassination. The 
ignorant and superstitious canaille ran frenzied and 
foaming through the streets, panting for murder. 
Huguenot writers affirm that under this " pacifica- 
tion," in the space of three months ten thousand 
of their persuasion perished by poison, by the dag- 
ger, and by the slow torture of imprisonment.t 

The astute policy of Catharine aided the frantic 
zeal of the priests and the Jesuits. Fearing lest 
any of her diabolical plans might reach the ears of 
Coligny or Conde, she new-modelled the cabinet. 
De l'Hopital, whose virtue and equity had fre- 
quently thwarted the exterminating plans of the 
princes of Lorraine, was ordered to deliver up the 
seals, and he was banished to his estate. The effect- 
ive powers of government were confided to a faithful 
few, and shrouded in mystery. Every possible pre- 
caution was taken to render the next blow struck at 
the Huguenots decisively fatal. % 

* Duncan, p. 81. f Ibid. La Noue, p. 625. 

% Ibid. Vieillemain, Yie de l'Hopital. 



THE WAR RECOMMENCED. 



321 



In pursuance of her scheme, the queen mother 
determined to seize Conde and the admiral. The 
prince was at his castle of Noyers, in Burgundy ; 
Coligny at Chatillon-sur-Loing.* " Their retreat," 
naively writes one of the admiral's biographers, 
" would have been extremely satisfactory to Cath- 
arine, if she had not seen that one half of the king- 
dom paid court to them. And indeed so great was 
the confluence at Chatillon and Noyers, that the 
Louvre was a desert in comparison. All the no- 
blesse of the Huguenot party went in crowds to see 
them; and when ten gentlemen went out by one 
door, twenty passed in at another. This obliged 
the admiral especially to incur great expense ; and 
if he had not been a careful man in everything else, 
it would have ruined him. However, he was so 
much beloved that a thousand presents were con- 
stantly brought to him ; and although he forbade 
his attendants accepting them, this did not prevent 
the same thing from occurring every day. The dif- 
ferent reformed churches collected and sent a hun- 
dred thousand crowns to prevent the prince and 
himself from entirely bearing such a charge. "f 

The queen mother sent an engineer to recon- 
noitre Noyers, to familiarize himself with Condi's 
habits, to learn the weak points of the castle, and 
to see whether it would be possible to get posses- 
sion of it by a coup de main. The spy entered 
Noyers without difficulty under the guise of a poul- 
terer. He was well received ; but when he began 
* Browning, p. 98. f Vie de Coligny, p. 346. 

14* 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



to talk, it was suspected that he was not what he 
pretended to be. The prince ordered him to be 
watched ; when lo, one night he was detected 
sounding the moat. Cond6 dissembled, and dis- 
missed him pleasantly ; but when he was gone, he 
wrote Coligny, acquainted him with the circum- 
stance, and advised him to be upon his guard.* 
The two chiefs then dispatched couriers to arouse 
their friends, and to request them to stand ready 
to grasp the sword at any moment.f 

In the mean time Coligny also had a visitor. 
Catharine sent Casteinau, an able diplomatist, to 
Chatillon-sur-Loing, to penetrate the admiral's de- 
signs; but the wary Huguenot was on his guard, 
and the hoodwinked politician reported that he 
found him busily engaged in his vineyards. J 

When Casteinau left him, Coligny posted off to 
Noyers to confer with the prince. § Upon being- 
apprized of this, Catharine ordered Marshal Tavan- 
nes, who commanded in Burgundy for the king, to 
seize them at all hazards. || But though Tavannes 
was a bitter foe of the Reformation, he had a keen 
sense of military honor ; and he knew besides, that 
if the scheme miscarried he w T ould be sacrificed by 
the queen mother without a scruple, to allay the 
ensuing storm. He was too wary a courtier, how- 
ever, to disobey openly so authoritative a mandate ; 

* Vie de Coligny, p. 346. Browning, p.' 99. f Ibid, 

t Duncan, p. 74. 

§ Mem. de Tavannes, p. 314. Brantome, yoL 9, p. 109. 
|| Ibid. 



THE WAE EECOMMENCED. 



323 



so lie set himself dexterously to save Concl6 and the 
admiral while yet appearing to perform his mission. 

Approaching Noyers, he wrote Catharine, " The 
stag is at bay ; the chase is prepared/' After dis- 
patching this laconic epistle, he sent two scouts to 
sound the depth of the water in front of the prince's 
strong-hold. They were captured, as Tavannes in- 
tended they should be, and upon being interrogated, 
confessed the plot.* 

Cond£ and Coligny prepared for instant flight. 
They quitted Noyers with their families in August, 
1568, and after enduring the severest hardships, 
traversing mountain paths hitherto untrodden, and 
crossing the Loire at a ford never before passed, 
reached, in September, the protecting walls of the 
friendly city of Rochelle.t 

Nor w T ere these the only victims of intended 
perfidy wdio baffled the subtle arts of the outwitted 
petticoated Machiavelii. Odet, cardinal of Chatil- 
lon, in the disguise of a common sailor, reached 
England from* a port in Normandy, where his nego- 
tiations with queen Elizabeth subsequently proved 
of eminent service to his party 4 

The queen of Navarre, whose arrest had been 
entrusted to Montluc, retired from Beam at the 
critical moment, and accompanied by her son and 
daughter, sought safety at Eochelle.§ 

- * Mem. de Tavannes, p. 314. Brantonie, vol. 9, p. 109. Dim- 
can, p. 83. 

t Vie de Coligny, 346. Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 127. Davila, liv. 
i, p. 443. J Duncan, p. 83. Eanke, p. 238. 

§ Ibid. 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Tims St. Bartholomew was again postponed. 

Hostilities instantly recommenced. 

The feeling at the court was very bitter. The 
edict of January, 1562, confirmed by the last peace, 
w r as again revoked ; the exercise of any other form 
of worship than the Roman was .prohibited, under 
penalty of death;* and the nominal command of 
the royal army was given to the duke of Anjou, the 
second brother of the king, a youth of sixteen, with 
the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. t But 
Marshal Tavannes commanded in reality. 

A feeling of the utmost jealousy and hatred 
existed between Anjou and the young king ; and 
Charles let no opportunity slip of mortifying his 
brother. When Anjou was nominated to the chief 
command of the army, Charles protested vehe- 
mently, and on one occasion an angry altercation 
took place at the supper-table. " Cousin," said the 
duke, " if you strive to obtain what belongs to me, 
I will make you little in the same degree as you 
imagine to become great." J 

In this convulsion Bochelle became the Hugue- 
not rendezvous, as Orleans had been in the preced- 
ing war. The extreme measures of the court rallied 
the whole Huguenot party to fight for their com- 
mon safety; nor did they on this occasion require 
any stimulus from the exhortations of their preach- 
ers. Their chiefs levied troops in all the provinces 
in which they had personal interest. So great was 

s Davila, liv. 4. Castelnau, liv. 7, ch. 2. f Ibid. 

X Banke, p. 229. 



THE WAE KECOMMENCED. 



325 



the influence of these leaders, that James Crussal, 
lord of Acier, alone raised and equipped twenty- 
five thousand men in Languedoc and Dauphiny;* 
a striking proof of the comparative weakness of 
the royal prerogative, and of the vast power still 
retained by the descendants of the ancient baro- 
nial aristocracy. 

Marches and counter-marches, skirmishes and 
manoeuvres innumerable succeeded. 

At length the two main armies fronted each 
other on the banks of the Charente/near Jarnac, a 
small frontier town which divided Limousin from 
Angournois. The river separated the combatants, 
and had the Huguenots exercised, common pru- 
dence, they might have avoided the calamities 
which soon befell them ; but they neglected to keep 
a diligent watch through the night, and Tavannes 
passed the Charente unchallenged. t 

Conde's army was spread over a wide tract of 
country, while that of the marshal advanced in a 
compact phalanx. The prince, surprised and beaten 
before the battle commenced, attempted to retreat 
upon his main body commanded by the admiral. 
In vain ; Tavannes held him in a vice. Conde then 
wheeled and charged the royal cavalry led by the 
duke of Anjou. At this critical moment his leg 
was broken by a kick from the horse of De la 
Hochefoucault, who was riding by his side. Un- 
daunted, by this accident, the gallant prince held his 

° Duncan, p. 84 

f Davila, liv. 4 Mem. de Tavannes. De Thou, etc. 



326 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



saddle, and encouraging his feeble escort, plunged 
like a hero into the thickest of the fight. Sur- 
rounded on all sides, he was soon dismounted ; with 
one knee upon the earth, he still shook his sword 
in fierce defiance of his enemies. He was com- 
manded to surrender by the royalist officers who 
recognized him; but ere he could do so, Montes- 
quieu, a captain of Anjou's guards, came behind 
him and shot him through the head.* 

Such was the end of Louis de Bourbon, prince 
of Conde, a nian of many noble and some great 
qualities, distinguished for his heroism, skill, and 
wit in an age when such a reputation necessitated 
corresponding ability. His licentiousness was the 
chief blemish upon his character. This exposed 
him to many snares, and impeded him in the rigid 
maintenance of his principles. Aside from this 
grievous fault, his character was free from spot ; a 
sincere friend, an unwavering advocate for religious 
toleration, an ardent, unbending Huguenot in his 

* La None, p. 659. Davila, liv. 4, p. 470. Browning, p. 102. 

" Oh plaines de Jarnac ! O coup trop inhuniaine ! 
Barbare Montesquieu ! moins guerrier qu' assassin ! 
Conde deja mourant tombe sous ta furie, 
J'ai vu porter le coup, j'ai vu trancher sa vie. 
Helas ! trop jeune encore, mon bras, mon foible bras, 
Ne peut ni prevenir, ni venger son trepas." 

Henkiade, chant. 2. 

The body of the prince was carried into Jarnac upon a pack- 
horse, "All the army," says Davila, "making sport of the spec- 
tacle, though while he lived they were terrified even by his name. 
The body was afterwards restored to his nephew, Henry prince 
of Beam, by whom it was buried at Vendome, in the sepulchre of 
his ancestors." Davila, liv. 4, p. 484. 



THE WAE RECOMMENCED 



327 



intellectual convictions, if not always in Lis practi- 
cal conduct, he was mourned by his friends with 
poignant sorrow, while his memory was respected 
even by his foes. 

The defeat of the Huguenots was complete. 
Many of their best officers were captured, among 
, the rest the brave and talented La None, whose 
graphic pen has left a stirring picture of his age. 
Upon this gallant soldier the cruel and remorseless 
duke of Montpensier pronounced summary sen- 
tence. "My friend/' said he sneeringly, "your 
trial is finished; yours, and that of ail your com- 
rades : look to your conscience.'' Martigues, a 
captain in the royal army, who had been an old 
brother in arms of La None, obtained his pardon, 
and he was exchanged.* 

The Huguenot army was only saved from utter 
rout by the coolness and skill of Coligny.f Col- 
lecting the remnant of the dispersed and shattered 
squadrons, the imperturbable admiral held them 
firmly together, and retreated with slow and stub- 
born valor upon the neighboring village of Cognac.:!: 
Pausing here only long enough to fortify the town, 
he left there a strong garrison, and then resumed 
his retreat, resting at St. Jean d'Angely, from 
whence he could advance to the assistance of 
Cognac, should it be besieged, while he was ena- 
bled also to open a road for the duke of Deux- 



* La None, p. 700. Davila. iiv. -i. Duncan., p. 87. 
f Yie de Coligny, p. 358. Mem. de Tavannes. 
J Ibid. 



328 THE HUGUENOTS. 

Ponts, who was advancing to his assistance at the 
head of some German auxiliaries.* 

The conduct of the royalists after the battle of 
Jarnac was weak, vacillating, and impolitic. The 
dukes D'Aumale and Nemours, relatives of the car- 
dinal of Lorraine, commanded an army fully equal 
in numbers to that of the duke of Deux-Ponts ; still 
the Bavarian general marched steadily through the 
heart of France. The duke of Anjou did not push 
on to Cognac till Coligny had strongly fortified it ; 
and then he no sooner reached it than he hastily 
retreated from its walls. The solution of these 

mvsterious tactics is to be found in the memoirs of 
«/ 

Tavannes, who attributed the whole of these faulty 
operations to the jealousies and intrigues of the 
court.f 

Meantime two inauspicious events occurred : the 
duke of Deux-Ponts fell a victim to the fever which 
then raged as a pestilence ;X hut he did not die 
before delegating his authority to his lieutenant, 
Mansfeldt, to whom his troops swore allegiance. § 

The loss of the Bavarian general was immedi- 
ately succeeded by another of more importance to 
the Huguenots. Coligny's brother, D'Andelot, 

* Yie de Coligny, p. 358. "The army of the duke of Deux- 
Ponts, who was also called Wolfgang of Bavaria, was composed 
of fourteen thousand men, and among his officers were "William 
of Nassau prince of Orange and his two brothers Louis and 
Henry, who quitted the Low Countries to avoid the merciless 
persecutions of the duke of Alva. " Davila, liv. 4. 

f Mem. de Tavannes. Duncan, p. 89. 

t Davila, liv. 4. Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 291. 

§ Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, vol. 3, p. 281, 



THE WAE RECOMMENCED. 329 



whom the admiral termed his right hand, was also 
stricken down by the remorseless fever. His death 
soon followed, and the first patrician apostle of 
religious liberty was lost to France. D'Andelot 
was a man of spotless integrity and singular hardi- a 
hood of character; frank, open, generous, he was a 
universal favorite, while he lived his religion as well 
as thought it. " He was true and sincere," says the 
Romanist abbe Anquetil, " and of all the Calvinist 
chiefs, one of the most honestly persuaded of the 
truth of his faith. Naturally frank, candid, and 
generous, he attracted friendship, as his brother, 
more severe and reserved, conciliated esteem."* 

Colignv deeply felt this bereavement; but car- 
rying it to God, he subordinated private sorrow to 
his stern sense of public duty, and remained at his 
post. 

Upon the death of Conde the leadership of the 
Huguenot army had devolved upon Colignv. But 
ere long dissatisfaction arose. There were many 
nobles in the ranks who were his equals in wealth 
and birth; these, while they readily conceded the 
admiral's military superiority, considered them- 
selves degraded by accepting him as their chief.! 
The wise admiral accordingly wrote the queen of 
2savarre, who still tarried in Kochelle with her 
children, that the time had come when she should 
raise her son to the dignity which was his due 4 



° Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligne. vol. 1, p. 298. 
f Browning, p. 105. Duncan, p. 88. 
% Davila, liv. 4, p. 488. 



330 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



This politic move exhibits at once Coligny's 
wisdom and his self-abnegation. He served God, 
not his own interests ; he was anxious for union, 
not greedy for power. Nothing could more finely 
* prove this than his appeal to Jane d'Albr6t. 

That illustrious woman, who inherited all her 
mother's fervid piety and brilliant genius, respond- 
ed to the call in the same spirit. Hastening to 
Coligny's camp, her presence at once rallied the 
desponding spirits of the mutinous army, and ani- 
mated them to fresh exertions. Her son Henry, 
prince of Beam, and the eldest son of Louis of 
Bourbon, prince of Concle, who was a few years 
younger than her own boy, and destined also to 
achieve wide fame, accompanied her. Holding the 
two princes by the hand, she presented them to the 
Huguenots in these stirring words : 

"My friends, we mourn the loss of a prince who, 
to his dying hour, sustained with equal fidelity and 
courage the faith which he had undertaken to de- 
fend ; but our tears would be unworthy of him, 
unless, imitating his bright example, w r e too firmly 
resolved to sacrifice our lives rather than abandon 
God. The good cause has not perished with Concl6 ; 
his unhappy fate ought not to fill with despair men 
who are devotedly attached to their religion. God 
watches over his own. He gave that prince com- 
panions well fitted to serve him while he lived ; he 
leaves among us brave and experienced captains, 
able to repair the loss we have sustained in his 
death. Here I offer you my son the young prince 



THE 



WAK 



KECOMMENCED. 



331 



of Beam ; I also confide to you Henry Conde, son 
of the captain whom we bewail. May it please 
heaven that they both show themselves worthy 
heirs of the valor of their ancestors, and may these 
tender pledges, committed to your guardianship, 
be the bond of your union, and the assurance of 
your future triumph."* 

As the beautiful queen, blooming with excite- 
ment, concluded, shouts of acclamation made the 
welkin ring ; the timid were reanimated, the dis- 
satisfied were reassured, and the boldest panted for 
action. The enthusiasm of the army was kindled 
to a still higher pitch when the prince of Beam 
and young Conde, with warlike vehemence of ges- 
ture, swore to defend the reformed religion, and to 
persevere in the "good fight" until death or vic- 
tory, t 

Henry of Navarre was immediately proclaimed 
generalissimo of the Huguenots : all dissatisfaction 
ceased ; the scrupulous point of honor was satis- 
fied, and Coligny became in fact what Henry was 
in name.J 

In the summer of 1569, active operations were 
resumed. The Huguenot army, forming a junction 
with the German auxiliaries, numbered twenty-five 
thousand ; the royalists under Anjou were still 
stronger.§ Coligny met the young duke at La 
Roche l'Abeille, and worsted him in a severe en- 



e Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 1, p. 292. Browning, p. 106. 

f Davila, liv. 4, p. 490. Duncan, p. 88. 

J Browning, p. 106. ^ Duncan, p. 92. 



332 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



gagement ;* he then pressed on to besiege Poitiers. 
Here an epidemic broke out among the Grerinans, 
who had eaten immoderately of the autumnal fruits; 
whole regiments were incapacitated for service ; the 
camp became a hospital, and the admiral himself 
was prostrated. While the army thus lay liors du 
combat, Anjou, who had marched to the relief of 
Poitiers, suddenly retreated; and this afforded Co- 
ligny also a pretext to retire without compromising 
his honor. t 

If Coligny was adored by his own party, he was 
admired and esteemed by all the high-minded and 
generous cavaliers among the royalists. Xo one 
questioned the sincerity of his faith ; all praised 
his invincible fortitude. Some of the royalist offi- 
cers sent him word from Anjou's camp of their vast 
numerical superiority, and urged him to avoid an 
engagement. To these admonitions the admiral, 
whose military genius was of the Fabian order, lent 
a willing ear. But this skilful policy was rendered 
impossible by the rashness of the Hotspur spirits 
in his ranks, and by the open mutiny of the Ger- 
mans.J 

On the 3d of October, 1569, the two armies 
joined battle at Moncontour. The hospital army 
of the admiral, enfeebled and demoralized, was 
quickly routed. A pistol-ball shattered the lower 
jaw of Coligny, who still kept his saddle, and con- 
tinued to display the courage of a soldier and the 

« Davila, liv. 4. D'Aubigne, Hist, Univ., vol. 1, p. 285. 
f Void. Duncan, p. 92. J Ibid., p. 93. 



THE WAE RECOMMENCED. 



333 



talent of a captain. But the fortune of the field 
could not be retrieved. Cannon, baggage, banners, 
all fell into Anjou's hands ; and of an army of 
twenty-five thousand men, but six thousand reached 
St. Jean d'Angely on the retreat.* 

But the Huguenots were too numerous, too well 
organized, and too enthusiastic to be subdued by 
the loss of a stricken field. 

Upon this occasion they were especially assisted 
to recover their feet by the bickerings and dissen- 
sions of the court. Tavannes, under whose skilful 
guidance Anjou had achieved his victories, was 
insulted out of the service by the cardinal of Lor- 
raine, t " Sir cardinal," said the indignant marshal 
when the inflated churchman ventured to dictate 
military tactics to him, " each to his trade ; no 
man can be at once a good priest and a good sol- 
dier."! 

The victory of Moncontour obtained for Anjou 
the loudest praises of his party ; but the glory he 
had acquired rankled in the envious heart of Charles 
IX* The king departed for the army, hoping that 
his presence, even after the battle, would trans- 
fer to his own brow the laurels which his brother 
had culled in the ghastly carnage of the battle's 
front. § 

The disunion in the royal camp enabled Co- 
ligny, indefatigable and ubiquitous, to recruit his 



- Duncan, p. 93. Davila, liy. 4. 
y Mem. de Tavannes. 
§ Ibid. 



Ranke, p. 241. 

J Ibid. Duncan, p. 94, 



334 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



forces, in order to try the success of a new cam- 
paign. Early in the spring of 1570, he descended 
from the mountains of Upper Languedoc, and 
marshalled his troops on the plains of Toulouse. 
Thence he spread his two wings, and carried pil- 
lage and desolation to the Loire. Arrived in Bur- 
gundy, he w r as opposed by Marshal Casse Gouner, 
at the head of thirteen thousand men. Though the 
admiral's army numbered but six thousand men-at- 
arms, he attacked boldly and with such skill that 
he gained a complete victory at Arnay-le-Duc.* 

This defeat alarmed the court, but nothing was 
done. The vigor of the government was paralyzed 
by the intrigues of rival cliques. Catharine once 
more dissembled; the tragic-comedy of a reconcili- 
ation was sought to be once more enacted. 

The overtures of the government were received 
with joy by the Huguenots. Peace on the basis of 
toleration was their dream. Saddened by reverses, 
wearied by tedious campaigns, longing for their 
homes, the cavaliers of the Reformation required 
nothing but insured liberty of conscience to make 
them doff their armor with enthusiasm. 

This was Catharine's programme : All preceding- 
edicts ratified ; a general amnesty ; the free exercise 
of the reformed religion; confiscated property re- 
stored ; the Huguenots declared eligible to all offices 
of the state ; the complete possession of four impor- 
tant cities, Pvochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La 

* Browning, p. 120. Vie de Coligny, p. 381. Matthieu, vol. 
1, p. 327. 



THE WAE RECOMMENCED. 335 

Charite, as guarantees : such were the terms de- 
manded and conceded in order to renewed pacifi- 
cation.* 

France hailed the peace with acclamations; but 
the curtain fell upon a dreary war, only to rise upon 
an atrocious massacre. 

° Vie de Coligny, p. 383. Browning, p. 120. Duncan, p. 95. 
Mem. de Tayannes, p. 98. Matthieu, vol. 1, p. 33o. 



836 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEE XXIV. 

HOODWINKED FRANCE. 

"With the pacification of 1570 came a new regime. 
The court changed front. Foiled in the field, Cath- 
arine changed weapons. The crafty Florentine de- 
termined henceforth to use those perfidious and 
deadly arts which were so congenial, in which she 
was strongest, and which w r ere in such fatal vogue 
in her native Italy. Every effort was made to lull 
France into a feeling of profound security. 

The Huguenots especially were treated with 
profound and unprecedented respect. Did any one 
demand additional privileges? the concession was 
ready. Did a murmur of complaint wail through 
the court? vengeance was swift. This very excess 
of graciousness w r as enough to excite suspicion, 
especially when it was well known that Catharine 
and treachery were synonymous terms; that she 
smiled, and, like Cassius, " murdered w r hile she 
smiled." Strangely enough, it did not. The party 
seemed infatuated. Indeed all France, save the 
conspirators who sat darkly hatching their hideous 
plot, said, "Lo, the millennium is come," and fondly 
believed that the present tranquillity would be per- 
manent. 

At the outset the Huguenots were w T ary. Upon 
the cessation of hostilities, the Bourbon princes, 



HOODWINKED FRANCE. 



337 



Jane d'Albret, and the admiral fixed their residence 
at Rochelle, where the queen of Navarre held her 
court.* It was the study of the government to allay 
the suspicions which this policy proved to exist, and 
to tempt the noblesse of the reformed party to 
the metropolis. Every artifice known to the queen 
mother's extensive repertoire was exercised. " As 
soon as the peace was signed," says Davila, " every 
secret spring which 'the king and queen held ready 
in their thoughts was put into action to draw into 
their nets the principal Huguenots, and to do by 
artifice that which had been so often vainly at- 
tempted by means of war/'t 

Never had Catharine acted her part with more 
consummate skill. Not a wrinkle of vexation mar- 
red her placid features. She even in appearance 
surrendered that authority for whose acquisition 
she had damned her soul ; and perfectly aware that 
the reformers observed her closely, she made her 
son assume the direction of public affairs, convinc- 
ing him that it was necessarv to success that he 
should gain the confidence of the heretics, and par- 
ticularly of Coligny.i 

On the 23d of October, 1570, the year of the 
pacification, which Charles with paternal affecta- 
tion styled " my peace,"§ the king was married to 
Elizabeth of Austria, second daughter of the reign- 

* Be Thou, liv. 47. Davila, liv. 5. Vie de Coligny, p. 385. 
f Davila, liv. 5, p. 578. 

% Ibid. Browning, p. 123. De Thou, liv. 47. 
§ Eanke, ch. 15. Duncan, p. 103. Memoires de Sully, torn. 
1, p. 18. 

Huguenots. 1 £ 



338 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ing house of Hapsburg. This princess possessed 
the esteem and confidence of her husband, but she 
exercised no influence over him, for her mild temper 
quailed before the assumption of the imperious 
Catharine.* 

To commemorate the nuptials, a giddy round of 
fetes was given, and the nobility of all parties were 
invited, so that a superficial observer would have 
imagined that the words " Huguenot " and " Ro- 
manist " had been swept from the language and 
merged in that of Frenchmen. t 

Yet still the admiral and his coterie absented 
themselves ; the queen of Navarre, with obstinate 
suspicion, continued to hold her modest court within 
the stout walls of devoted Eochelle. 

A new scheme was hatched. With the ostensi- 
ble view of conciliating conflicting interests, but 
with the real design of masking his perfidious and 
sanguinary plot, and to insure the presence of the 
chief victims, Charles endeavored to promote vari- 
ous alliances among the leading families of the 
kingdom, and proposed his youngest sister, the 
beautiful but frail Margaret of Valois, as the con- 
sort of young Henry prince of Bearn4 

Now for the first time this prince, who in after 
years achieved an immortal fame, begins to make a 
central figure in the checkered and tragic history 
of his epoch. It is fitting therefore that the more 



* D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 1. Duncan, p. 96. 
t Ibid. 

% Davila, liv. 5. D'Aubigne, Be Thou, etc. 



HOODWINKED FRANCE. 



33J 



salient features of his early life should be briefly- 
recited. 

Henry was born at Pau, in Beam, on the 13th of 
December, 1553." He was the grandson of Henry 
d'Albret, the brother-in-arms of Francis I. ; his 
grandmother was the beautiful, accomplished, and 
pious Margaret de Yalois, the sister of the paladin 
king. 

The young prince was reared in the castle of 
Courasse, in the mountains of Navarre. Here he 
was exercised like a Spartan boy; nourished on the 
coarsest diet, brown bread, beef, cheese ; he was 
also sent to play with the children of the peasants, 
bareheaded and barefooted.t Thus from his cradle 
he was hardy, independent, and self-reliant. This 
harsh apprenticeship, so unlike that of most princes, 
prepared him for heroic destinies. 

While Henry d'Albret lived, he personally super- 
intended, his grandson's education, a task for which 
his fine scholarship well fitted him. Indeed Charles 
V. considered him one of the most accomplished 
men of his age.j' Upon his death, Jane d'Albret 
provided him with an excellent and learned tutor 
named La Gaucherie, who cultivated his illustrious 
pupil's mind chiefly by conversational instruction^ 
He had the wisdom to abandon that trifling course 
of study invented in an age comparatively barbar- 
ous, which was calculated rather to disgust than to 



* Matthieu, Hist, de France ; Cayet, vol. 1 ; Mem. de Sully, etc. 
f Ibid. Duncan, p. 99. % Browning, p. 81, note. 

§ Duncan, p. 101. James, Life of Henry IV., vol. 1. 



340 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



enlighten. La Gaucherie, moreover, instilled into 
young Henry's mind principles of honor and of 
public virtue, which ever after, if we except his 
many and sad errors of gallantry, and these the 
Christian and moralist must condemn, guided his 
conduct. 

When this able teacher died, Henry was con- 
fided to the tuition of Florent Chretien, a Huguenot 
preacher of high merit.* He readily entered into 
the views of the queen of Navarre, and trained the 
prince in the reformed faith with careful assiduity. 

When the young mountaineer was first pre- 
sented at the court of France, his blunt frankness 
caused much amusement ; but his biting wit, grace 
of manner, and bonhomie speedily subdued all 
hearts.']' 

"Will you be my son?" queried Henry II. on 
one occasion as he stood chatting with the little 
prince. "No," was the frank reply, "he is my 
father," pointing to the king of Navarre. " Well," 
retorted the king, " will you be my son-in-law then?" 
"With all my heart," said Henry; and from this 
early date his marriage with the princess Margaret 
is said to have been decided upoml; 

At Bayonne the duke of Medina, looking at him 
earnestly, said, " This prince either will be or ought 
to be an emperor. "§ 

In the Memoir es de Never s, some letters written 



0 Duncan, p. 101. James, Life of Henry IV., vol. 1. 

T Cayet, torn. 1, p. 236. Browning, p. 84. 

\ Cayet, torn. 1, p. 240. § Ibid. 



HOODWINKED FKANCE. 



341 



in 1567, by the principal magistrates of Bordeaux, 
are found, which contain interesting particulars of 
young Henry's manners and person at that time. 
"We have here with us," says one of them, "the 
prince of Bearn. It must be confessed that he is a 
charming youth. At thirteen. he has all the riper 
qualities of eighteen or nineteen. He is agreeable, 
polite, obliging, and behaves to every one with an 
air so easy and engaging that wherever he is there 
is sure to be a crowd. He mixes in conversation 
like a wise and prudent man, and speaks always to 
the purpose. When the court is the subject dis- 
cussed, it is easy to see that he is au fait, for he 
never says more nor less than he ought. I shall ail 
my life hate the new religion for having robbed us 
of so worthy a subject."* 

Another describes Henry's personal appearance : 
" His hair is inclined to a reddish tint, yet the ladies 
think him none the less agreeable on that account. 
His face is finely shaped, his nose neither too large 
nor too small, his eyes full of sweetness, his skin 
brown, but clear, and his whole countenance ani- 
mated by a striking vivacity. With all these graces, 
if he is not well with the ladies, it must be strange. "t 

Henry was early initiated into the science of 
war, in which he was destined to achieve so wide a 
celebrity. Even at the early age of fifteen, when 
his mother conducted him to Bochelle and pre- 
sented him to the army, he criticised the military 

* Mein. de Nevers, torn. 2. p. 586, et seq. 
f Ibid., tom. 2, p. 590, et seq. 



342 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



faults of Conde and Coligny, two of the greatest 
captains of the age.* 

Such was the embryo king of Navarre — whose 
white plume at a later clay led the headlong charge 
at Ivry — when, in his nineteenth year, he was invited 
to wed Margaret of Valois. 

For many reasons, the proposal was extremely 
distasteful to Jane d'Albret. She instinctively dis- 
trusted the tortuous politics of the court. Now, 
without putting a decided negative upon the plan, 
she yet withheld her positive sanction, for she had 
a dark foreboding of Catharine's sinister designs. 
This tacit opposition disconcerted the court. It 
was feared that the slightest breath of suspicion 
would detect the exterminating conspiracy ere it 
was ripe. The precautions were redoubled. Ev- 
ery device was adopted with renewed zeal to lull 
the Huguenots into false security. Any infringe- 
ment of the recent treaty was severely punished.t 
And Charles carried his duplicity to such a length, 
that he insulted the Guises into apparent exile, 
expressed a wish that young Conde should marry 
Mary of Cleves, marchioness de ITsle, who had 
been reared in Jane d'Albret's court, and w T as an 
advantageous match; and to crown all, he brought 
about a marriage between Coligny, now a widower, 
and Jacqueline of Savoy, countess d'Entremont, a 
wealthy and noble Protestant lady who had become 
deeply interested in the admiral,']: giving them a 

* Duncan, p. 101. f Ibid - Davila, liv. 5 ; DeThou, liv. 47, etc 
I James, Life of Henry IV. Vie de Coligny. 



HOODWINKED FRANCE. 



343 



nuptial present of a hundred thousand crowns, to- 
gether with all the benefices enjoyed by Od6t, car- 
dinal of Chatillon, who had just died abroad." 

These generous and successive acts of kingly 
comity produced the desired effect ; only the most 
cautious and penetrating of the Huguenots still 
held out ; but unfortunately among these were 
Coligny and the queen of Navarre. Charles per- 
ceived this, and in the summer of 1571 he made a 
tour into Touraine, hoping that Jane and her suite 
would visit him on the route ; nor was he disap- 
pointed ; she came to his itinerant court, accompa- 
nied by the princes and escorted by the admiral. t 

When Coligny stood in the presence of his maj- 
esty, out of habitual respect the old soldier was 
about to fall upon one knee. Charles saw his in- 
tention, seized him by the arm, and prevented the 
intended obeisance, saying, " Nay, I hold you now, 
admiral, nor shall you for the future quit me when 
you please ; I cannot spare so valuable a friend.''^ 
Then, with great emphasis and much apparent gen- 
uineness of feeling, he added, " This is indeed the 
happiest day of my life." The queen mother, the 
duke of Anjou, and all the attendant nobles loaded 
Coligny with compliments and caresses, and espe- 
cially the young duke of Alen^on, youngest brother 
of the king, who, giving full play to the vivacity 

• * Duncan, p. 103. Vie cle Coligny. De Thou, liv. 56. Oclet 
of Chatillon died at Southampton, England, in 1571, just as he 
was about to embark for France. He is said to have been poi- 
soned by his valet. Duncan. 

j- Brantome, Duncan, Mem. de Sully. J Vie de Coligny. 



344 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



and frankness of boyhood, expressed his esteem for 
the admiral in extravagant terms.* But he alone 
was sincere ; he was not yet old enough to be steeped 
in dissimulation. 

On this ill-fated visit it was definitely settled that 
Henry of Navarre should wed Margaret cle Yalois, 
and Jane d'Albret and her suite consented to cele- 
brate the nuptials in the spring of 1572 at Paris. t 
The two courts then parted, with mutual profes- 
sions of eternal amity. 

Catharine returned to the metropolis with sar- 
donic satisfaction. " The cautious fish have taken 
the bait," said she with a leer of triumphant malice. 

On her part, the queen of Navarre reentered 
Rochelle sadly and thoughtfully. Reasons of state, 
anxiety to cement a lasting and righteous peace, had 
wrung from her a reluctant assent to the ill-omened 
marriage of her beloved boy ; but not all the per- 
suasions of apparent gain could satisfy her mater- 
nal instinct, nor quiet her apprehensions. She re- 
peated incessantly, " This union is not, nor can it 
come to, good.":j: 

The political heavens now seemed serene ; not 
a cloud specked the horizon. The awful lightnings 
which lurked behind this smiling sky yet hid their 
thunderbolts. 

Completely cozened, the leaders of the Hugue- 
nots crowded to Paris, from which they had been 



* Vie de Coligny, La Noue, Brantome, Mem. de Sully, 
f Mem. de Sully, Vie de Coligny, Duncan, La Noue. 
t Ibid. 



HOODWINKED FRANCE. 



so long debarred, anxious to share once more in 
the pleasures of the capital.* 

In the middle of Mar, 1572, the queen of Na- 
varre, accompanied by a brilliant retinue, arrived at 
the Louvre. On the 9th of June she was a corpse. 
Suspicions of foul play were at once bruited through 
the streets. Her death was attributed to poison, 
which they say was given to her in a pair of gloves 
by a Florentine named Rene, the queen mother's 
perfumer, t 

This melancholy event of course postponed the 
marriage of Henry, who now assumed the title of 
kins; of Navarre.i 

Singularly enough, the fate of their great queen 
did not persuade the Huguenots of the doom which 
awaited them. Dazzled blind by Catharine's wiles, 
they lingered on at the court, nor made an effort to 
escape the impending horrors. 

Coligny indeed, profoundly grieved by the death 
of Jane d'Albret, which however he considered nat- 
ural^ retired to his estate of Chatillon-sur-Loing 
for a few weeks ; but it was not long ere he was 
once more an habitual visitor at the Louvre. 

The admiral's conduct at this time bordered 
upon infatuation, and is all the more remarkable 
on account of his natural caution and penetration. 

* Davila, liv. 5. De Thou. liv. 50. Esprit de la Ligue. 
• j- See the AEemoires of L'Etoile. D'Aubigne, and others. Da- 
vila, liv. 5. also corroborates this account. -Jane d'Albret was 
forty-two years of age when she died. 

£ Mem. de Sully; De Thou; Browning, p. 129: Duncan, p 
117. § Tie de Coligny. j| Davila. liv. 5. p. 179. 

15* 



346 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



While at his country residence, he was flooded with 
letters from his friends urging him not to return to 
Paris, and presaging calamity. They did not in- 
deed base their appeals upon any specific facts ; 
their admonitions were rather the result of general 
inferences from current reports and peculiarities 
of conduct observed at Paris.* 

But the admiral was deaf. One day one of the 
gentlemen attached to his suite requested leave of 
absence. " On what account ?" demanded Coligny, 
" Because they caress you too much," was the reply, 
" and I would rather escape with the fools than per- 
ish with the wise."t 

The chiefs of his party, relying upon the habit- 
ual wariness of Coligny, and noting his calmness, 
shared his confidence, and partook of his doom. 

The fact is, that the admiral was attacked on 
his weak side. His darling project, a war against 
Spain for the assistance of the staggering Protes- 
tantism of the Netherlands, was held out to him as 
certain to be adopted. £ Extended conversations 
were held between the king and himself, in which 
he dilated upon the advantages certain to accrue to 
France from such a war.§ The profound and far- 
reaching mind of the great admiral formed plans of 
the grandest character. Philip II. was destitute of 
money ; the French forces, disciplined by innumer- 
able internecine wars, were superior to the Span- 



* Davila, liv. 5, p. 179. Duncan, p. 167. 
f Davila, liv. 5, p. 179. 

J Duncan, p. 104 ; Browning, Eanke, De Thou. 



§ Ibid. 



HOODWINKED FEANCE. 



347 



iards in military science ; he had but to throw united 
France into the Low Countries, and reinforce the 
kingdom by an alliance with England and Protes- 
tant Germany, and then the Reformation might be 
cemented into an indestructible unit, while Eoman 
Europe would be lassoed into quiet imbecility.* 

Such, according to the best contemporaneous 
authorities, was the brilliant programme of this 
statesmanlike Huguenot. 

The French court listened with courteous atten- 
tion to the admiral as he unfolded his plans, and 
map in hand, pointed out the salient features of the 
grand campaign. Catharine and the king appeared 
to enter with his own ardor into the scheme ; and 
then, when Coligny quitted them, retired to the 
secret recesses of the palace, and spent half the 
night in arranging the details of the slowly ripen- 
ing holocaust. 

* B,anke, p. 256 ; Mem. de Sully, Vie de Coligny, Brantorne. 



318 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER XXY. 

THE MASSACEE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 

The preachers in Geneva and the cardinals at 
Rome foresaw and predicted a catastrophe from 
the abnormal political situation at Paris. The rad- 
ical antipathy between the rival parties who stood 
nudging each other's elbows at the Louvre, with 
reconciliation painted on their faces, but hatred 
still unsubdued in their hearts, could not but fore- 
bode evil. 

Yet, unmindful of the petulant murmurs of the 
king, oblivious of the old threats which had issued 
from Bayonne, the Huguenot leaders still lingered 
at the court, while one more act was played in the 
dreary comedy which ushered in the awful tragedy 
of St. Bartholomew. On the 18th of August, prince 
Henry and Margaret de Valois were married.* 

The young duke of Guise had cherished the 
hope of marrying the king's sister ; he had long 
entertained a violent passion for her, while her 
affection for him was equally undisguised. t But 
mutual affection was compelled to succumb to 
vicious state policy, and the wedding was consum- 
mated. 

It had been agreed that the. ceremonial of the 

« Brantome, vol. 8, p. 180. Dayila, liv. 5, p. 609. 
t Davila, liv. 5. Browning, p. 126. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 



349 



marriage should not be wholly conformable to either 
creed : not to the Protestant, because the vows were 
to be received by a priest, the cardinal of Bourbon; 
not to the Romish, because those vows were to be 
received without the sacramental ceremonies of the 
Vatican. A great scaffold was erected in the court 
before the principal entrance of the cathedral of 
Notre Dame ; and standing upon this typical struc- 
ture, the inauspicious nuptials were celebrated.* 
It was remarked by many that when the princess 
was asked if she were willing to take king Henry 
of Navarre to be her husband, she stood obstinately 
silent; she had said repeatedly that Guise alone 
should be her husband. But the king her brother, 
who stood just behind her, with his own hand 
rudely inclined her head, and this was taken for 
Margaret's assent. t This done, the bridegroom 
retired into a neighboring Huguenot chapel, while 
the reluctant bride passed into the cathedral with 
a bitter and broken heart to listen to the mockery 
of the mass. In the evening the coldly indifferent 
husband and the sulky spouse attended the brill- 
iant festival with which Charles crowned the dis- 
mal day 4 

From this time horrible events begin to jostle 
each other. Four days after the wedding, an at- 
tempt was made to assassinate the admiral as he 
was returning from one of his daily interviews with 



* Decade de Henri Quatre, tome 2. Duncan, p. 108. 
f DaYila, liy. 5, p. 609. Mezeray, La Grain, etc. 
X Ibid. 



350 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the king at the Louvre. He was fired at from a 
window screened by a curtain. Coligny was in- 
debted for his life to an accidental movement made 
at the moment ; but as it was, his left arm was bro- 
ken, and the index finger of his right hand was shot 
off. With imperturbable sangfroid the old soldier 
pointed out the house from whence the bullet sped ; 
but ere his suite could break open the gate, the 
assassin had escaped.* 

This assault caused a profound commotion. 
The hostile mob of Paris, which had only borne 
the presence of the Huguenots with suppressed fury, 
now heaved in almost open insurrection. Navarre 
and Conde, supported by the whole Protestant 
party, presented a petition for justice and protec- 
tion ; and the king, who was playing at tennis when 
the news reached him, threw down the racket in a 
violent rage, muttered something about immature 
action, and exclaimed, " Must I be perpetually 
troubled by broils ; shall I never have quiet ?"t 

Active measures were then taken to allay sus- 
picion, to quell the rising tumult, and to flatter the 
angered Huguenots into renewed stupefaction. 

Coligny, who had been borne to his apartments 
by his attendants, weltering in his blood, was 
shortly visited by the king, the queen mother, An- 
jou, and many of the chief nobility. Every expres- 

5 Sully, liv. 1. De Thou, liv. 52. The assassin's name was 
Maurevel, an adherent of the Guises. 

f Sully, tome 1, p. 33. Davila says that the king merely 
feigned displeasure ; he was playing with the duke of Guise. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 351 



sion of condolence was uttered, signal vengeance 
upon the assassin was promised, the police were 
ordered to make domiciliary visits and arrest all 
suspected persons, and his majesty even carried his 
hypocrisy so far as openly to notify his high dis- 
pleasure at the occurrence to all the public ambas- 
sadors.* 

This energetic action at once disarmed the sus- 
picion and conciliated the respect of the Huguenot 
chiefs. Startled Paris resumed its tranquillity, and 
that awful hush which precedes a storm suc- 
ceeded, t 

Meantime, warned by this emeute of the danger 
which lurked in procrastination, perfectly well aware 
that every hour lost was an opportunity for misfor- 
tune, the conspirators worked with diabolical zeal 
to complete the preparations for the wholesale 
slaughter, and the time was definitively fixed — the 
23d of August, 1572, the eve of St. Bartholomew's 
day.:j: A pistol was to be fired in front of the Lou- 
vre as the signal for the commencement of the 
butchery. 

A few of the Huguenots were alarmed, and 
boldly proposed to quit Paris with the admiral. 
The viclame of Ghartres strongly advised this 
course. He even informed Coligny that the Guises, 
despite their ostensible disgrace at court, had been 
twice seen in masks at the Louvre in secret conver- 



* De Series, tome 11, p. 470. Duncan, p. 109. 

f Browning. De Thou, Yie de Coligny. 

I Davil\ liv. 5; Mem. de Sully; Duncan, etc. 



352 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



sation with Catharine and the king. " "We have 
"been shamefully ensnared," he added.* 

Coligny was averse to showing any suspicion. " If 
I do so," said he, " I must display either fear or dis- 
trust : my honor would be hurt by the one ; the king, 
I hope, would be injured by the other. Besides, I 
should then be obliged to renew the civil war, and 
I would rather die than again see such ills."f 

The shrewd vidame, however, was not to be per- 
suaded, and accompaniad by a number of equally 
wise friends, among whom were Rohan and Mont- 
gomery, he passed out of the fatal city 4 

Under pretence of protecting the admiral and 
his friends from any tumult which the Guises might 
stir among the populace, the whole Huguenot fac- 
tion were lodged in one quarter of the city, and the 
chiefs were huddled together for the double purpose 
of preventing their escape and keeping them under 
easy surveillance. Perhaps too Charles called to 
mind the pithy maxim of Alaric : " Thick grass is 
easier mown than thin." Around this doomed 
quarter was drawn a cordon of the duke of Anjou's 
guards, professedly to protect the victims, but who 
shortly became their most zealous murderers.§ At 
the same time arms were profusely delivered to the 
canaille of the metropolis, previously crazed by the 
clamors of the Jesuits, and these were hidden in 

s Sully, liv. 1, p. 32. De Thou, liv. 52. Browning, p. 136. 
t Matthieu, Hist, de France, vol. 1, liv. 6, p. 343. 
X Browning, p. 137. 

§ D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 2, p. 17. De Thou, liv. 52. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 



353 



the slums of the capital.* Finally, couriers were 
dispatched to all parts of France with orders to 
make the massacre general and exterminating. t 

France was commanded to commit suicide. The 
kingdom was to stagger and bleed beneath self-dealt 
and frenzied blows. 

The awful eve arrived. At midnight the pistol 
shot was fired ; the talismanic word was uttered. 
Charles cried, Havoc, and let slip the thunderbolt. 
The wild populace swayed through the streets, cry- 
ing, " Blood, blood !" The protecting guard of the 
Huguenot quarter was suddenly transformed into a 
legion of demoniacs. " Bleed, bleed !" shouted Ta- 
vannes ; " the physicians say that bleeding is as 
good in August as in May.";;; The dukes of Guise 
and Montpensier rode through the streets, crying, 
" It is the will of the king ; slay on to the last, and 
let not one escape. 55 The count of Coconnas seized 
thirty prisoners, put them in prison, and put them 
to death with his own hand by slow and lingering 
tortures. 

The butcher Pezon, who slaughtered men, wom- 
en, and children as he did cattle, boasted of having 
in one day killed a hundred and twenty Huguenots. 
Ben6, Catharine's perfumer, frequented all the gaols 
in which the evangelicals were immured, and amused 
himself by stabbing them with daggers. He de- 
coyed a rich jeweller into his house, under pretext 
of saving him; but after plundering his person, Bene 

* Browning, p. 136. Brantonie. vol. 8, p. 18-i. 

f Ibid. Mezeray. X Mem. de Tavannes. 



354 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



cut his victim's throat, and threw the body into the 
Seine. " This arni," said Cruc6, a gold-wire drawer, 
taking off his coat and exhibiting his naked arm, 
" on the day of St. Bartholomew, put to death four 
hundred heretics."* 

At the first signal the duke of Guise sped for 
the residence of the admiral, pausing but to ring 
the great bell of the palace, which was only tolled 
on days of public rejoicing, t He was accompanied 
by his two creatures, Petrucci, an Italian, and 
Berne, a German bravo ; a company of men-at- 
arms also followed. The bravos rushed into the 
chamber of the helpless admiral, who, awaked by 
the noise, had just arisen from his bed and now 
stood leaning against the wall of his apartment. J 
"What means the tumult?" queried he of his at- 
tendants. " My lord," was the solemn reply, " God 
calls us to himself." The admiral then bade his 
suite to leave him. "I cannot escape; it is all over 
with me ; I have long been prepared for death ; but 
save yourselves, dear friends." Such Avere the col- 
lected and noble words of this martyr, whose spirit, 
armed by faith in God, no danger could quell. Co- 
ligny's attendants at once quitted him, while he 
composed himself in prayer.§ 

Unmoved by the entrance of the assassins, he 
continued his supplications. Awed by the gran- 

* These anecdotes are found recorded in Sully's Memoirs, Ta« 
vannes' Memoirs, in Browning, Vie de Coligny, and in Duncan, 
f Mezeray, Abrege Chron. 

X De Thou, liv. 52. Vie de Coligny. Browning. 
§ Ibid. 



ST. BAETHOLOMEW 



355 



deur of the scene, the majestic figure of the calm 
and venerable old soldier engrossed in devotion, 
Petrucci instinctively paused. "Art thou Coligny ?" 
demanded the bravo. "I am indeed," responded 
the admiral. " Young man, you should have re- 
spect unto my gray hairs : but work your will ; you 
can abridge my life only by a few short days."* 

A moment later, and Gaspard de Coligny, the 
foremost subject in France, the most distinguished 
man in Christendom, lay dead. 

Berne plunged his sword into Coligny's body, and 
his companions then gave him multitudinous stabs 
with their stilettos. "Your enemy is dead," cried 
Petrucci from the window to the duke of Guise, wdio 
awaited the denouement impatiently in the court 
below. " Very well," was the answer, borne up 
through the midnight gloom ; "but M. d'Angouleme 
will not believe it until he sees the body at his feet." 
The next instant the corpse, flung from the window, 
fell with a thud at the feet of the princes ; the yet 
warm blood even spirted out on the clothes and into 
the faces of the disbelievers. With brutal noncha- 
lance Guise stooped and wiped Coligny's face, then 
ordered his satellites to hold a torch, that he might 
recognize his foe. When, through the lurid and 
flickering gloom, he detected that it was indeed the 
mighty admiral who lay before him, he spurned the 
body with his foot, and ordered the head to be cut 
off.f This was sent to Catharine : what disposition 

° Brantonie, vol. 8, p. 185. 

t De Thou, liv. 52. Browning, p. 139. Vie de Coligny. 



356 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



she made, of it is uncertain ; Tavannes and Felibien 
affirm that it was dispatched to Rome;* others say 
that Philip II. of Spain received the ghastly pres- 
ent. The decapitated body was mangled and drawn 
through the streets during two or three days ; the 
populace then threw it into the river, but afterwards 
drew it out and hung it by the heels to the gibbet 
of Montfaugon ; a slow fire was then kindled be- 
neath it, which disfigured it horribly. t 

The body swung from lihis gibbet when Charles 
w*ent with his court to gloat over the abused re- 
mains of that man whom he had so recently termed 
" his father," and assured of his affectionate vener- 
ation. The odor emitted by the decomposing body 
was so dreadful, that the courtiers stopped their 
noses with their handkerchiefs. " Fie, fie!" cried 
Charles, borrowing the language of the classic 
brute Vitellius : " ' The carcass of an enemy always 
smells pleasantly.' "J 

Marshal Montmorenci, Coligny's cousin, had 
these insulted remains cut down one night, and 
secreted, for he feared to inter them at Chantiliy, 
lest they should be molested. Subsequently, when 
the decrees against the admiral's memory were re- 
versed, they were buried in the tomb of his ances- 
tors at Chatillon-sur-Loing.§ 

While Coligny's murder was being perpetrated, 
the drunken pavements of bewildered Paris were 



* Mem. de Tavannes, p. 419. Felibien, Histoire de Paris, vol. 
2, p. 1119. f Vie de Coligny, D'Aubigne, De Thou. 

t Brantome, P. Masson, Browning, Duncan, etc. § Ibid. 



ST. BAETHOLOMEW. 



357 



glutted in blood. The Huguenots, surprised and 
overmatched, could make no resistance. Escape 
was impossible ; the city gates were shut and guard- 
ed ; numerous lights, placed in the windows of the 
dwellings, deprived the reformers even of the nor- 
mal protection of night f' and patrols traversed the 
streets in all directions, butchering every one they 
met. From the streets, as the carnival grew wilder, 
the frenzied multitude swept into the houses. Nei- 
ther age, sex, nor condition were spared. Priests, 
holding a crucifix in one hand and a sword in the 
other, preceded the murderers, encouraging them 
to butcher alike relatives and friends, and promis- 
ing them absolution from all crimes and heavenly 
happiness as the reward of these " acts of devo- 
tion, "t 

Even the Louvre became the scene of great car- 
nage ; the king's guards were drawn up in double 
line, and the Huguenots who lodged in the palace 
were summoned out one after another and killed 
w T ith the halberds of the infuriated soldiers. :|; Most 
of them died without complaining ; others appealed 
to the public faith and the sacred promise of the 
king. "Great God," cried they, "be the defence 
of the oppressed. Just Judge, avenge this per- 

While these events were occurring in the court- 

* Mem. de Tavannes ; D'Aubigne. 

f Browning, p. 140. Duncan, p. 114 

% Mem. de Tavannes, p. 418. Pavila, liv. 5. 

§ D'Aubigne', Hist. Univer., vol. 2, p. 18. Browning, p. 140. 



353 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



yard, Charles, seated at a window of the Louvre, 
amused himself by shooting down all who came 
within range of his musket.* 

The monarch's ferocity was contagious ; even 
the ladies of his court were seen descending into 
the square of the Louvre, then filled with the dead 
bodies of Huguenot gentlemen, many of whom had 
cheerfully passed with them some hours of the pre- 
ceding day. It was by their syren-like qualities 
that some of the victims had been enticed to their 
death ; they now became harpies, through the ad- 
dition of cruelty to fanaticism and wantonness, and 
trampling common decency under foot, they jested 
and laughed as they recognized the murdered Hu- 
guenots,t precisely as the king did from the window 
of the Louvre, and beneath the gibbet of Mont- 
faugon. 

Among those who fled within the precincts of 
the palace was a nobleman named Soubise, whose 
wife had recently instituted a suit of divorce against 
him. His mangled body underwent a careful ex- 
amination from these brazen wantons, whose bar- 
barous curiosity was worthy of such an abominable 
court.J 

When day dawned, Paris exhibited an appalling 
spectacle of slaughter : headless bodies were dan- 
gling from innumerable windows ; gateways were 
blocked up by the dead and dying; the houses were 

0 Duncan, p. 124. Browning. Notes to the " Henriade." 

f Browning, p. 143. Mem. de Tavannes. 

t De Thou, liv. 52, vol. 6, p. 402. Browning, p. 144. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 



359 



battered, while the doors were smeared with gore ; 
and the streets were filled with carcasses, which 
were drawn, bleeding and mutilated, across the 
bloody pavements to the choked and reddened 
Seine. * 

These atrocious scenes were continued through 
three days and nights, and the orgies only slack- 
ened from lack of victims. 

Meantime the massacre spread throughout 
France ; the reeling kingdom bled at every pore 
with mute heroism. The slaughter at Meaux, An- 
gers, Bourges, Orleans, Lyons, Toulouse, Rouen, 
and in many of the smaller towns of the provinces, 
was horrible. t 

But the genius of humanity had not wholly fled 
from France. Claude de Savoy, count of Tende, 
saved the lives of all the Huguenots in Dauphiny. 
" This missive," said he when the king's letter or- 
dering the massacre was handed to him, "must be 
a forgery, and I shall so treat it.";j: 

Eleoner de Chabat, count of Charny, who com- 
manded in Burgundy, acted with similar heroism ; 
there was but one Huguenot murdered at Dijon.§ 

Heran de Montouvin, governor of Auvergne, 
positively refused to obey the mandate, unless it 
were supported by the personal presence of the 
king.] 

* DAuhigne, Daviia, Mamibourg, De Thou, Bro\vning, eta 
\ Ibid. Duncan, p. 122. 

i Sully, tome 1, p. 45. De Thou, lib. 52, 53. 
§ DAubigne, Hist. Univ., tome 2, lib. 1. 
j| Duncan, p. 122. 



3o0 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



The Viscount d'Ortes, the governor of Bayonne, 
penned this immortal response to the -royal order : 
" Sire, I have communicated your majesty's man- 
date to your faithful inhabitants in this city, and 
to the men-at-arms in the garrison. I find here 
good citizens and brave soldiers, but not one exe- 
cutioner. On this point, therefore, you must not 
expect obedience from me."* 

But despite these luminous exceptions, from sev- 
enty to a hundred thousand victims were slaugh- 
tered, and the lives of two of the heroes who refused 
obedience to the bloody fiat of Charles IX. — the 
Count de Tencle and the Viscount d'Ortes — were 
abridged by the infernal skill of the royal poisoner. t 

Both the Romish and the Huguenot chroniclers 
of this tragedy have bequeathed to posterity many 
episodes of personal adventure, which are replete 
with thrilling interest. But after " supping full of 
horrors," the imagination wearies and palls. De- 
tails grow hideous. " The deep damnation of their 
taking off" appalls those who peruse the history of 
the Huguenots ; readers have no appetite for mi- 
nutiae. 

It was long a mooted question whether Conde 
and young Henry of Navarre should be saved or 
not. Upon this point the testimony is clear. " It 
was anxiously deliberated," says the archbishop of 
Paris, " whether the prince should be murdered 
with the others; the conspirators were for their 

* Duncan, p. 122. Stilly, Be Thou, Davila, Browning, 
f Sully, lib. 1. Per6fixe. Duncan, p. 125, note. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW 



301 



death; nevertheless they escaped by a miracle."-' 
" The duke of Guise," remarks Davila, " wished that, 
in killing the Huguenots, Henry of Navarre and the 
Prince de Conde should be included ; but the queen 
mother and others had a horror of dipping their 
hands in royal blood. "t " Indubitably/' says quaint 
old Bran tome, " they were proscribed and down on 
the £ red list/ as they called it, because it was re- 
marked that it was necessary to dig up the roots of 
the heretical faction, Navarre, Conde, the admiral, 
and other noted personages ; but the young queen 
Margaret threw herself upon her knees before king- 
Charles her brother, to beg her husband's life at 
Catharine's command. The king granted it to her 
after much urging, since she was his good sister.";]: 

Margaret, in the account she gave of the hor- 
rors of the night which ushered in the massacre, 
relates that " on retiring to rest, Henry's bed was 
surrounded by thirty or forty Huguenots, who 
talked all night of the accident to the admiral, and 
resolved the next morning to demand justice upon 
the Guises. Xo sleep was had ; and before day the 
king of Navarre rose, with the intention of playing 
at tennis until king Charles was up."§ 

Margaret then narrates that she fell asleep after 
the retirement of Henry and his suite, but that in 
less than an hour she was awakened by loud shouts 
in -the palace corridors, and by a man striking with 

* Perefixe, Hist, de Henri le Grande, 

f Dayila, liv, 5, p. 616. i Brantome, vol. 1. p. 261. 

§ Mem. de la Heine Marguerite, p. 181, et seq. 

Huguenots. ^(3 



362 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



hands and feet against the door of her room, and 
crying, "Navarre, Navarre!" Thinking it might 
be her husband, she opened the door, when lo, a 
man besmeared with gore rushed in, and clasping 
her by the feet, conjured her to save him. This 
cavalier was quickly pursued by four soldiers, from 
whose greedy swords the young queen with diffi- 
culty saved her strange client. At length his life 
was spared to her prayers, and she was conducted 
to the chamber of her sister the duchess of Lor- 
raine, where, at the very moment of her entrance, 
a gentleman w r as killed just at her side. 

Margaret fainted : upon her recovery she in- 
quired for her husband, and was told that both 
Henry and Conde were then in the presence of the 
king.* 

When the princes were summoned to the king, 
Catharine, in order to affright them into submis- 
sion, ordered them to be conducted under the pal- 
ace vaults, and to be made to pass through the 
royal guards drawn up in files on either side, and 
poised in menacing attitudes. t 

" Charles received them," says Sully, "with a 
fierce countenance and a volley of blasphemies. 
He avowed that the admiral and the other heretics 
had been slaughtered by his mandate ; affirmed that 
he would no longer be thwarted or questioned by 
his subjects; declared that all should revere him as 
the likeness of God, and be no longer the enemies 

* Mem. de la Eeine Marguerite, p. 181, et seq. 
f Per6fixe, Hist, de Henri le Grande. 



ST. 



BARTHOLOMEW 



of his mother's images ; and ended by calling on 
the princes to recant."* 

" Sire/' replied Conde with noble candor, "I am 
accountable to God alone for my religion ; my pos- 
sessions, my life, these are in your majesty's power; 
dispose of them as you please ; but no menaces, nor 
even death, shall make me renounce the truth. "t 

" And you, sir," said Charles with bitter empha- 
sis, turning to prince Henry, " what say you?" 

Henry expressed the same determination, though 
less frankly.^ "Well, sirs," said the king, "I give 
you three days in wdiich to consider; then the mass, 
death, or the Bastile ; take your choice. "§ 

Charles then gave way to sardonic glee. " Have 
I not played my part well?" asked he of Catharine 
de' Medici. "He tcJw cannot dissemble is not Jit to 
reign," said Louis XL " Have not I known how to 
dissemble?" queried Charles, quoting this precept; 
" have not I well learned the lesson and the Latin 
of my ancestor, king Louis XL ?"|| 

Thus the hideous fete of St. Bartholomew closed 
with a laugh and a sarcasm. 

The slaughter was complete. The heads of the 
most distinguished Huguenot families in France 
were the victims of the holocaust. Coligny, Boche- 
foucault and his son Teligny, the admiral's son-in- 
law Briquemont and his sons, Plauyiant, Bemy, 

« Sully, liv. 1. 

f D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 2, p. 19. 

t Duncan, p. 121. § Ibid. Sully. 

|| Brantome, vol. % p. 421. 

i 



364: 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Clermont, Lavardin, Caumont de la Force, and 
many thousand more gallant gentlemen and Chris- 
tian soldiers, formed the trophies of the fanatics. 
The zealous reformer of the University, La Earned, 
hunted out in his hiding-place by one of his col- 
leagues whose ignorance he had frequently exposed, 
was surrendered up to a gang of hired assassins/" 

Nor did fanaticism alone sharpen the sword and 
direct the dagger. Defendants in actions at law 
assassinated the plaintiffs, debtors slaughtered their 
creditors, jealous lovers butchered their rivals. t It 
was a combination of religious frenzy, private ven- 
geance, and public condemnation such as the world 
has never seen since the days of Sulla's proscrip- 
tions. 

When the ghastly saturnalia had continued 
through a w^eek, Pibrac, the king's advocate, waited 
upon his majesty to inquire whether he would be 
pleased to have the " joyous" event registered in 
Parliament, to perpetuate its memory. ;|; The law- 
yer also begged that the "revels" might be discon- 
tinued. To both these propositions Charles ac- 
ceded, and orders were given by sound of trumpet 
forbidding further murder.§ 

Shortly after proclamations were issued in which 
the king assumed the responsibility of the massa- 
cre, which he declared that he had ordered;!! affirm- 

* Banke, p. 277. f Duncan, p. 114. 

X Le Pape Derniere, liv. 29, p. G6. Browning, p. 145. 
§ Anquetil, Esprit de la Lignc, vol. 2, p. 50. 
|| Ibid. Browning, p. 116. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW 



365 



ing that Coligny and his associates had plotted reg- 
icide ; branding the admiral's memory as infamous, 
confiscating his property, degrading his family to 
plebeian rank, ordering his body — and if that could 
not be found, his effigy — to be drawn on a hurdle, 
hung up at the Place de Greve, and then fixed on 
the gibbet of Montfau^on. Coligny's portraits and 
arms were commanded to be destroyed wherever 
they could be seized, by the public executioner ; and 
his residence at Chatillon-sur-Loing was to be razed, 
and the trees cut down to within four feet of the 
earth. The decree concluded by declaring that in 
future the anniversary of St. Bartholomew should be 
celebrated by public processions and feus de joier 

It was perhaps honestly believed that these 
spiteful and abortive insults would affect the pos- 
thumous fame of the illustrious admiral, thrice hon- 
ored bv the stigmatization of such a kino*. 

In the conduct of Charles IX. it is difficult to 
decide whether his atrocity or his dissimulation is 
most detestable. His own edicts, which closely fol- 
lowed one another, were ridiculously contradictory ; 
and it is asserted by a Romish partisan that the 
day after the publication of the edict commanding 
tranquillity, he dispatched courtiers of note to the 
larger provincial cities with verbal orders to con- 
tinue the fete despite the proclamation/!* 

' These orders were quite unnecessary ; the un- 

6 Browning, p. 146. 

f Abbe Anquetil. Esprit de la Ligue. vol. 2, p. 52. Davila, 
liv. 5. De Thou, liv. 52. 



3G6 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



slaked rage of the fanaticizecl multitude was not to 
be suppressed by a parchment fiat. From time to 
time the "Paris matins/' as the massacre was call- 
ed — a name suggested by the " Sicilian vespers " — 
were renewed ; the tocsin sounded everywhere, and 
the sans-culottes stormed the houses of the Hugue- 
nots w T ith undiminished ardor, robbing, murdering, 
and ravishing with the talismanic cry, " The king 
desires and commands it."* 

The minds of men w r ere filled with wild fanta- 
sies, which made them fear even themselves, and 
caused the very elements to appear fraught with 
terror. In after years, Henry IV. used openly to 
relate, that during the seven nights which immedi- 
ately succeeded the slaughter, flocks of ravens 
perched upon the eaves of the Louvre, and croaked 
loudly and lugubriously, always commencing as the 
palace clock tolled twelve.t 

Henry mentions another prodigy still more ex- 
traordinary : " For several claj's before the massacre 
commenced, I noticed, while playing at dice with 
the dukes of Alengon and Guise, that drops of blood 
clotted upon the table : twice I tried to wipe them 
off, when they reappeared ; upon which, seized with 
horror, I quitted the game."^: 

About eight days after the slaughter, Charles 
IX. summoned his Huguenot brother-in-law to his 
bedside at midnight in great haste. Henry found 
him as he had sprung from his couch, filled with 

• Kanke, p. 277. 

t Notes to the " Henriade." Duncan, p. 124. % Ibid. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 



367 



terror at a wild tumult of confused voices which 
resounded through the chamber. Henry himself 
imagined that he heard these sounds ; they appear- 
ed like distant shrieks and howlings, mingled with 
the indistinguishable raging of a furious multitude, 
with wails and groans and smothered curses, as on 
the day of the massacre. Messengers were dis- 
patched into the city to ascertain whether any new 
tumult had broken out, but these returned with the 
assurance that Paris was quiet, and that the com- 
motion was in the air. Henry could never recall 
this scene — the affrighted courtiers huddled in the 
middle of the room, the half-distracted king, and 
the agonized wail of the phantom voices — without 
a horror that made his hair stand on end.* 

Thus, for his share in the awful "pageant" of 
St. Bartholomew, the weak and too late affrighted 
king was tortured by the reproachful visions of his 
distempered imagination, compelled 

"To groan and sweat under a weary life." 

while conscience gradually stung him into an un- 
timely grave. 

% Ranke, p. 278. 



368 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE TRIUMPH OF EOCHELLE. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew created an 
unprecedented sensation throughout Christendom. 
Affrighted Europe, frozen with horror, stood on 
tiptoe gazing towards France, and asking with 
white lips, "What next?" 

This was regarded as the signal for a general 
crusade against Protestantism. 

Even the maiden queen of England was far from 
esteeming her insulated position to be a guarantee 
of safety. She was familiar with the tortuous mo- 
rality of the Vatican. She had already experienced 
the character of Romish intrigues in the different 
manoeuvres made to unseat her and install Mary 
queen of Scots in her throne. The pretended rup- 
ture between Erance and Spain, which had cozened 
the profound penetration of Coligny, vanished as 
soon as its object was accomplished. Elizabeth 
feared either an immediate attack from Philip II., 
or a general revolt of the papists in Great Britain.* 

Fenelon was then the French ambassador at the 
court of St. James. Upon being summoned into 
Elizabeth's presence to present the dispatches of 

* Hume, Hist, of England ; Lingard, Hist, of Eng. ; Brown- 
ing, p. 152. 



TRIUMPH 



OF EOCHELLE. 



his king, which represented this monstrous act of 
treason against his subjects as the offspring of ne- 
cessity, Fenelon blushed at being a Frenchman." 
"When he attended the hall of audience, he found the 
vrhole court arrayed in deep mourning ; a gloomy 
silence was preserved ; no friendly eye was turned 
towards him ; every countenance was mournful and 
downcast. He approached the queen, who neither 
rose from her throne nor extended her hand, as was 
the courtesy of the times. Elizabeth read the doc- 
uments with marked displeasure, and broke the still- 
ness only to express her astonishment and indigna- 
tion.f 

A cry of horror rang through Germany and x 
Low Countries. Many writings were published, all 
denouncing the massacre, which was justly charac- 
terized as a compound of trickery, perfidy, and 
atrocity, exceeding in turpitude all that had ever 
been perpetrated in the annals of tyranny.;;: 

The court of France was the more sensitive to 
these animadversions, as negotiations were then 
pending to secure the crown of Poland for the duke 
of Anjou. It was feared that the prejudices and an- 
tipathies of the neighboring Germans might frus- 
trate these expectations. Accordingly a deputation 
was sent to the Protestant princes to disarm their 
resentment. § 

' The pleas of justification were as various as 
they were absurd. Sometimes the vrhole transac- 

* Condillac, torn. 13, p. 184. f Ibid. % Duncan, p. 127. 
§ Ibid., Dayila, De Thou, Esprit de la Ligue, etc. 
16* 



370 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tion was defended by citing the odious maxim of 
Innocent III., more recently decreed by the Coun- 
cil of Constance and adopted by the Jesuits, that 
no faith need he kept with heretics* Some condemned 
in part, and extenuated in part ; while others regret- 
ted the event, but denounced what they were pleased 
to term Coligny's regicidal intentions, borrowing 
the " buncombe" of their king, But these lame ex- 
planations, these limping apologies, were not able 
to stand on their own feet. Such absurdities pro- 
duced but little effect in the outraged Netherlands 
and in angered Germany, where the assassins of 
the Huguenots were always held in undisguised 
abhorrence, t 

There were two courts which received the news 
from Paris with acclamations. At Home diabolical 
joy was manifested. Cannon were fired, bonfires 
blazed, the city was illuminated as if to celebrate a 
glorious achievement, and a solemn mass was in- 
toned, at which pope Gregory XIII. personally offi- 
ciated, with all the imposing ceremony of the papal 
church.']: The cardinal of Lorraine, who was resi- 
dent minister of France at the Vatican, questioned 
the messenger like a person informed beforehand ;§ 
and a medal was struck, bearing on one side the 
head of Gregory XIII., and on the other the exter- 
minating angel smiting the Huguenots, with the 
legend, " Huguenotorum Strages, 1572. "[[ 



* Abbe Caveyrac. f Duncan, p. 127. 

t Esprit de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 65. Browning, p. 153. 
§ Ibid. || Ibid. Duncan, p. 128, note. 



TRIUMPH OF EOCHELLE. 



37J 



Tims Rome embalmed the massacre in barbar- 
ous Latin. 

Yet despite his processions, his high masses 
celebrated in St. Peter's, and his honorary medals, 
it is said that the pontiff shed tears when he lis- 
tened to the private recital of the excesses which 
smeared France with fraternal gore. " I cannot 
but weep," said Gregory, " when I think how many 
of the innocent must have suffered with the guilty."* 
The abbe Anquetil cites these words, and observes, 
"A sentiment of compassion not incompatible with 
those public demonstrations which policy requir- 
ed. "+ But it has been justly said that this is a 
dangerous morality which permits a jubilant exul- 
tation in public over a crime which is condemned 
in privacy, which distinguishes between the natu- 
ral and the artificial man, and throws the mantle 
of hypocrisy over the spotless form of shrinking 
virtue. 

It was at Madrid that the horrible crime was 
welcomed with the loudest plaudits. Philip II., 
the dark and gloomy bigot whose habitual demeanor 
was as frigid as the outside of a sepulchre, then 
showed for the first time that he could be sensible 
to joy. The sombre gravity which had been proof 
against Alva's cruelty, which had given no outward 
sign of pleasure when the great naval victory of Le- 
pa'nto crippled the Ottoman, now quite forsook him, 
and his black heart gloated over the streams of blood 
which had reddened the streets of Paris. He made 
* Brantome. vol. 8. f Esprit cle la Ligue, torn. 1, p. 312. 



372 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



magnificent presents to the courier who brought 
him the thrice-welcome news, wrote an autograph 
letter of congratulation to Charles IX., caroused 
with his courtiers, rejoiced in public, ordered Te 
Deum to be chanted, and summoned all the func- 
tionaries of the state to. wait on him and tender 
their felicitations.* 

The admiral of Castile read the French dis- 
patches at table, thinking to increase the festivity 
of the occasion. " Prythee, good admiral, were 
Coligny and his friends Christians?" queried the 
young duke del Infantado, who was seated among 
the guests. " Undoubtedly," replied the admiral. 
"Why then," rejoined the young prince,. " since 
they were Christians, were they butchered like wild 
beasts?" " Gently, gently, my prince," said the 
admiral \ " know you not that war in France means 
peace in Spain ?"t 

But while agitated Europe was commenting 
thus variously upon the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew, France, plagued once again by those ills which 
Coligny so pathetically deprecated,^ w T as plunged 
in civil w T ar. The pacificatory results which the 
court crazily imagined would ensue, failed to ap- 
pear ; it was divinely fixed that the sowers of the 
wind should reap the whirlwind. 

To slaughter the representatives of an idea even 
in hecatombs does not extinguish the principle, 



* Brantome, vol. 8, p. 189 ; cited in Browning, p. 153, and in 
Duncan, pp. 128, 129. f Brantome, vol. 8, p. 189. 

% Chap. 25, p. 350. 



TRIUMPH OF ROCHELLE. 



does not settle controverted points, does not weak- 
en the right of private judgment. Moreover, the 
massacre of the Huguenots, extensive as it was, was 
very far from an extermination. Thousands sur- 
vived the bloody deluge ; and seeking asylums in 
the Netherlands, in the German duchies, and in 
England, they still had faith in God, and bided his 
good time. 

Others, making no effort to quit France, forti- 
fied themselves in Montauban, in Ximes, in Eo- 
chelle ; and these three towns, forming themselves 
into a confederation, declared their union an inde- 
pendent republic — im/periwn in imperio* 

" The court," says the abbe Crillon, " thought 
to have drowned Calvinism in the blood of its chief 
defenders ; but that hydra soon regained its vigor."t 
The Huguenots were indeed so far from being crush- 
ed, that they speedily put eighteen thousand well 
equipped and devoted men-at-arms in the field, and 
became masters of a hundred towns.;]; 

The court made strenuous exertions to throttle 
the infant confederation. Three armies were lev- 
ied, One, under La Chastre, was employed to re- 
duce Sancerre ; D'Amville Montmorenci, with an- 
other, undertook to choke the emeute in Languedoc ; 
wdiile the third, commanded by Yillars, the new 
admiral of France, was sent into Guyeure. Besides 

° Mattliieu ; VTaimbourg, Hist, clu Calvinism e ; Duncan, p. 
133. 

f Vie cle Crillon : cited in Browning, p. 150. 
t Duncan, p. 133 ; Davila ; De Thou. 



374 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



these, there were the forces under Strozzy and 
Montluc's army." 

It was determined that Rochelle, now, as always 
before, the Huguenot citadel, should be conquered 
at all hazards. After various intrigues to foist upon 
the Rochelioise a Romanist governor, all of which 
were foiled by the keen inhabitants, the city was 
besieged by an immense army, officered by Strozzy 
and Bovin, accompanied by the duke of Anjou.t 

Rochelle had long been one of the first mari- 
time cities in France. It was well known to the 
early English merchants under the name of the 
"White Town," as they called it, from its appear- 
ance when the sun shone and was reflected from its 
rocky coasts. It was also much frequented by the 
Netherlander. There were merchants among the 
Rochelioise who had each as many as ten ships at 
sea at one time.J 

Ever since the period of the English wars for 
the French succession, Rochelle had enjoyed extra- 
ordinary municipal franchises. It had by its own 
unaided power revolted from the English dominion ; 
and for this heroism Charles V., in his customary 
manner, conferred upon the burghers valuable priv- 
ileges ; among others, that of independent jurisdic- 
tion in the city.§ 

Rochelle exhibited Protestant sympathies at an 

* Mezeray ; Browning ; D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. 
f Davila, liv. 5. Browning, p. 163. 

X Arccre, Histoire de Rochelle, vol. 1, p. 302. From the eon- 
temporary narrative of Barbot, advocate, and mayor in 1810. 
§ Hist, de Rochelle, vol. 1, p. 208. 



TRIUMPH OF EOCHELLE. 



375 



early period. Habituated to civil liberty, intelli- 
gent and self-reliant, the citizens were excellently 
well prepared to accept the Reformation ; and when 
a Genevese preacher arrived there in 1556, on his 
return, from an unsuccessful missionary enterprise 
to Brazil, he found no difficulty in building up a 
prosperous church among the Rochelloise. "With 
the rough and hardy population, habituated to the 
sea, a teacher like this, who had boldly performed 
his voyage across the ocean to serve God, was sure 
of a generous reception. In all the reactionary 
changes and alternations of party through the civil 
wars, the faithful Rochelloise clung to the tenets of 
the Reformation, to Christ and their open Bibles, 
with unshaken firmness.* 

The town had a fine harbor, and was naturally 
well fortified, while nature had been carefully rein- 
forced by art. The garrison now consisted of fif- 
teen hundred regular troops and about two thou- 
sand of the burghers, who belonged to the train- 
bands of the city.f These had been well disci- 
plined in the frequent wars, and their ardor was at 
this time raised to fever heat by the enthusiasm of 
the women, who at once emulated and animated 
their husbands, fathers, and lovers.:): 

The influence of the preachers was also very 
marked. Two among them, La Place and Denard, 
were remarkable for their ability, energy, and devo- 
tion. Their discourses marvellously strengthened 

* Hist, de Kochelle, p. 208. Ranke, p. 242. 

f Arcere, p. 419. Davila, liv. 5. J Browning, p. 162. 



376 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the determination of the populace, whose humanity 
was appealed to by descriptions of the sufferings 
endured by their brothers in the faith ; but they 
chiefly dwelt upon the paramount claims of relig- 
ion to their utmost devotion. Denord was very 
eloquent ; and he possessed such influence by his 
persuasive style, that he was called the pope of 
Rochelle.* 

Although the town was not completely invested 
before the close of January, 1573, there were several 
assaults in December, 1572 ; one especially was 
upon a mill near the counter-scarp. As it could 
not easily be fortified, it served as a barbican or 
post of observation in the daytime, and at night it 
was left under guard of a single sentinel. Strozzy, 
considering that the position would be valuable to 
the Rochelloise, advanced by moonlight to attack it. 
The solitary sentinel, with a hardihood rarely equal- 
led, resolved to defend the mill, although two cul- 
verines were pointed against it. He briskly fired 
on the assailants ; and in order to deceive them, he 
called out to an imaginary troop of followers, as if 
encouraging them or giving orders, while an officer 
hallooed from the nearest bastion that he would 
soon be reinforced. The contest was too unequal 
to allow time for the arrival of the promised assist- 
ance, and to avoid the consequences of an assault, 
the sentinel demanded quarter for himself and men. 
It was granted ; when lo, he walked out alone. 
Strozzy was so enraged at his presumption in pre- 

° Browning, p. 162. Arcere, p. 421. 



TRIUMPH OF BOCHELLE. 



377 



tending to hold out, that lie ordered his heroic pris- 
oner to be hung for his insolence ; but Biron inter- 
fered, and saved his life, at the same time condemn- 
ing him to the galleys. Happily the courageous fel- 
low managed to escape. His name has not been 
preserved, but Barbet says that he was a brazier of 
the isle of Bhe.° 

The conduct of the court in the prosecution of 
the war was enigmatical. La Xoue, a fearless sol- 
dier, a skilful captain, and a zealous Huguenot, had 
been absent in Hainault, whither he had been sent 
by Colmiiy to collect such intelligence as might be 
useful in that Xethedand campaign which was never 
to occur, at the time of the "Paris matins;" thus 
he had escaped the massacre. t On his return to 
France, Charles received him with open arms. He 
gave La Xoue the confiscated estate of his brother- 
in-law Teligny, and then entreated him to use his 
influence with the Bochelloise, whose commander 
he had been in the preceding Avar, to induce them 
to accept terms of peace. % 

At first La Xoue peremptorily refused ; but after 
a long struggle he yielded to the importunities of 
the king, and influenced both by anxiety for peace 
and the hope of serving his party, he accepted the 
delicate commission.! 

Upon approaching Bochelle, La Xoue halted in 

* Arcere, p. 436 ; cited in Browning, pp. 162, 163. 
t Br ante-rue ; Tie de Xoue. 
% Duncan, p. 135. 
§ Browning, p. 161. 



378 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



an adjacent village, and sent to the town announc- 
ing his errand and arrival/ 

The Eochelloise at once dispatched deputies to 
meet the distinguished soldier. Familiar with the 
character of the court, they feared that some treach- 
ery lurked beneath La Noue's overtures. " We have 
been invited," said they, " to confer with La isoue ; 
but where is he ? It is nothing that the gentleman 
to whom we speak resembles him in person, when in 
character he differs so widely from him." The sol- 
dier pointed proudly to his artificial arm, which had 
procured for him the sobriquet of Bras de fer. thus 
mutely to remind them of the limb which he had 
lost in their service.* But the deputies persisted 
that they remembered with gratitude their valued 
friend, but that they did not now recognize him. 

Finding it impossible to treat with them, La 
Noue asked permission to enter Eochelle. The 
citizens received him joyfully, but would not listen 
to his proposals for peace. They left him. to choose 
one of three alternatives, a safe passage to England, 
a residence in their city as a private individual, or 
the governorship of Eochelle. After some hesita- 
tion, he accepted the command. t 

Strange to say, this step did not destroy the 
good opinion which Charles and the whole court 
party entertained of him ; and it is a case almost 

* "At the siege of Fontenay, in 15G9, his left arm mis so severe- 
ly fractured by a rnirsket-ball that amputation was necessary." 
Browning, p. 162, note. 

f De Thou, liv. 53. D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 2, p. 34. 



TEIUMPH OF KOCHELLE. 



379 



unparallelled that, being commissioned "by two con- 
tending parties, he preserved the confidence of 
both. In action, none more bravely joined in repel- 
ling the assailants ; and at quiet intervals he never 
omitted to exhort the townspeople to listen to the 
king's offers— liberty of conscience, and full security 
for themselves. But the gallant Eochelloise were 
not satisfied with simple liberty to worship God 
for themselves : while their coreligionists went with 
shackled lips, they knew no peace. They insisted 
on treating for all the Huguenots ; a demand to 
which the king would not accede.* 

After a time La Noue, dissatisfied with his equiv- 
ocal position, requested and obtained permission to 
quit Rocheile for an honorable retirement.t 

The Rochelloise could not but regret the loss 
of their skilful chieftain, but they " bated no jot 
of heart or hope." The siege dragged through 
six bloody months, and still the Huguenot bas- 
tions remained impregnable. There was no order 
among the royalists, no unity, no combination of 
plans ; jealousy and bickering poisoned their coun- 
sels ; 

"And enterprises of great pith and moment, 
With this regard, their currents turned awry, 
And lost the name of action." 

Anjou was wounded; Aumale w T as killed in the 
trenches ; many others of rank also perished ; an 

* Browning, p. 162. 

t Davila, liv. 5 ; De Thou, liv. 53 ; Arcere, etc. 



380 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



epidemic broke out in the camp, and fifty thousand 
men died either by the sword or by disease." 

Anjou began to weary of a siege in which his 
reputation was frittered away ; and as the negotia- 
tions for the crown of Poland wore an auspicious 
aspect, the elated prince forgot his duty to France, 
and passed his time with his favorites in planning 
schemes of pleasure and magnificence on his instal- 
lation at Warsaw, t 

The royal arms were as unsuccessful in other 
sections as before Eochelle ;% and in July, 1573, the 
exhausted state of the court exchequer compelled 
the cessation of hostilities.^ 



On the 6th of July a treaty of peace was signed, 
which guaranteed to the confederated cities, Bo- 
chelle, Montauban, and Nimes, the free exercise of 
their religion and their civic independence.il Thus 
the self-sacrificing efforts of the gallant Rochelloise 
to secure the enfranchisement, not only of them- 
selves, but of their brothers in Christ, were crown- 
ed, through God's favor, with success. 

In November, 1573, the duke of Anjou quitted 
France for his new kingdom of Poland, for that 
crown had at length been tendered him.T His de- 
parture was followed by the birth of a new conspir- 
acy, which originated with the duke of Alengon, the 

s Davila, liv. 5 ; De Thou, liv. 53 ; Arcere, etc. Duncan 
says forty thousand ; Browning's estimate is twenty thousand, 
f Davila, liv. 5. J Brantome ; D'Aubigne. 

§ Duncan, p. 137. 

|| Ibid. ; Arcere, p. 424 ; Brantome ; Vie de Crillon, by his son. 
T De Thou, and others. 



TRIUMPH OF EOCHELLE. 



381 



Montmorencis, Biron, and Cosse, to which Navarre 
and Conde, botli of whom had finally succumbed 
to the king's threats, and apparently united with 
the Roman church, also adhered.* But a variety 
of circumstances united to strangle this infant cabal 
in its cradle ; and though its aim had been to effect 
certain needed reforms in the state, without any 
consideration for religion, it exploded in a laugh. 

Charles IX., meanwhile, was every day draw- 
ing nearer to his grave. His last hours were em- 
bittered by that remorse which agonizes the con- 
science of the dying sinner. From the fatal eve of 
St. Bartholomew, he was observed to be always 
gloomy and wretched ; he would groan involunta- 
rily when the horrors which he had perpetrated 
were recalled. The king's physician, Ambrose Pare, 
though an outspoken Huguenot, possessed a greater 
share of his confidence than any other person ; and 
to him he frequently unbosomed the tortures of his 
soul. " Ambrose," said Charles, " I know not what 
has happened to me these two or three past days; 

but I feel my mind and body to be terribly at en- 
j j \i 

mity with each other. Sleeping or waking, the 
murdered Huguenots seem ever present to my 
eyes, with ghastly faces and weltering in their 
blood. I wish the innocent and the guiltless had 
been spared."! 

It is pleasing to record these expressions of 
repentance, says an eminent historian, for they 

* Mem. de Bouillon, p. 24 ; Vie de Mornay, liv. 1, p. 25 ; and 
others. f Sully, torn. 1, p. 43. 



382 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



show that humanity can never be wholly despoiled 
of her rights, and that outraged conscience will 
sting the most callous soul. 

Henry of Navarre was present at the death of 
Charles IX. The expiring monarch called him to 
his side, and recommended his wife and infant 
daughter to his protection. At this solemn hour 
he appreciated this manly prince whom he had so 
bitterly outraged. He drew Henry to his pillow, and 

cautioned him to distrast ; but he whispered 

the name so faintly, that none heard it but his kins- 
man into whose ear it went. Catharine however, 
who stood near by, guessed his meaning, for she 
said, " My son, you should not speak thus." " Why 
not?" queried the king ; "it is perfectly true."" 

On the 30th of May, 1574, Charles IX. expired, 
bathed in a bloody sweat, which oozed from every 
pore.f 

* Duncan, Davila, and others. In the notes to the "Henri- 
ade," it is said that Charles alluded to the duke of Anjou. Caget 
makes Catharine the object of the remark. 

f Caget, Brantome, Duncan, De Thou. 

The reason assigned for Charles' death by his physician was, 
his passion for hunting, when he incessantly blew the horn. 
"However," says Brantome, "it could not be driven out of some 
people's ideas that he was poisoned when his brother set out for 
Poland ; and it was said, with the powder of some marine animal 
which makes the victim languish a long time, and then dwindle 
away till he becomes extinct like a candle." Brantome, vol. 15, 
p. 440. 

"Marshal Bassompierre relates in his memoirs that, having 
cautioned Louis XIII. not to blow a horn too much, as it killed 
Charles IX., the king answered, 'You mistake : blowing the horn 
did not cause his death ; but he quarrelled with the queen Catha- 
rine Ids mother, at Montceaux, and left her and went to Meaux. 



TEIUMPH OF EOCHELLE. 



383 



Standing beside this awful death-bed, the soi- 
enm words of the apostle may be discerned written 
across the livid lineaments of the atrocious king : 
" The wages of sin is death." 

If he had not yielded to the persuasions of Marshal de Eetz, who 
conducted him back to Montceaux, to join the queen his mother, 
he would not have died so soon.'" Mem. de Bassompierre, vol. 
2, p. 21 ; cited in Browning, pp. 168, 169, 



38i THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

VICISSITUDES. 

Upon the death, of Charles IX., Catharine de' 
Medici, grown old and hag-like, but as energetic 
and unscrupulous as in her prime, dispatched a 
courier to Poland to inform Anjou that the vacant 
throne of France awaited him ;* she then assumed 
the regency during the interregnum. t 

In these troubled times, the slightest change at 
court was the signal for a cabal; so important an 
event as the demise of a monarch was certain to 
precipitate a revolution. France soon heaved in 
insurrection, and even private gentlemen made fo- 
rays upon the royal strong-holds in the southern 
provinces.^: 

This outbreak had no special religious signifi- 
cance, but was rather one of those periodical up- 
heavals which occur at stated intervals in countries 
where justice and law are recklessly overridden by 
selfish, licentious, and abandoned despots. France 
through all this dismal epoch was emancipated 
from judicial forms ; a strong hand and an un- 
sheathed sword — these were the synonyms of gov- 
ernment. The arbiter of all disputes, public or 
private, was the dagger, the bullet, or the poison- 

0 Mezeray, Abrege Chron. Journal cle Henri III. 

f Brantorne; Vie de Charles IX. J Davila, liv. 5, p. G67. 



VICISSITUDES. 



385 



er's bowl. To such a desperate strait had the Ital- 
ian morality of Catharine de ; Medici — the morality 
which looks upon all means as lawful by which 
power is obtained and preserved, which stands mut- 
tering the favorite Jesuitical shibboleth of the Vat- 
ican, "The end sanctifies the means" — reduced 
unhappy France. Catharine's ancestor, Cosmo de' 
Medici, had maintained his authority at Florence 
by severity, guile, and vengeance ; should she scru- 
ple to use the weapons of so consummate a politi- 
cian ? 

She now used all three. Her severity and ven 
geance were shown by the execution of La Malle 
and Coconnas ;* by the arrest of Montgomery in 
Normandy, shortly followed by his beheadal, osten- 
sibly for killing Henrv II. in the tournament of 
1559, but really because he was one of the most 
indefatigable and uncompromising of the Hugue- 
nots ;t by the imprisonment of marshals Montmo- 
renci and Cosse in the Bastile, and by the confine- 
ment of Alencon and Henry of Navarre in a grated 
chamber of the Louvre under careful surveillance.^: 

Her guile was exhibited by the attempts which 
she made to wheedle those chiefs who wisely ab- 
sented themselves from her dangerous vicinage, and 
especially by her efforts to cajole D'Amville Mont- 
morenci, who, dissatisfied by the imprisonment of 
his. brother the marshal, by the insult offered his 

0 Matthieu, Brantorne, De Thou. 

f Journal de Hemi III. B'Aubigne. 

% Brantorne, vol. 1. p. 171. James. Life of Henry IV. 

Hujrnenota. 1 - 



386 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



family in the assassination of Coligny, and by the 
exile of his house from court, aided, sub rosa, the 
insurgents in his government of Languedoc, while 
professing to quell the emeute* 

Such was the political situation when Henry III. 
returned to France. 

Henry received intelligence of his brother's 
death within fourteen days after his arrival in Po- 
land. The austere behavior of his new subjects 
made him regret, even in that brief period, the un- 
checked profligacy of Paris ; and his companions, 
young libertines from twenty to twenty-five years 
of age, disgusted by the restraints of decency and 
virtue, longed to lap themselves once more in the 
licentious arms of Catharine's court beauties. In 
this desire the dandy king, who wore earrings,t 
and perfumed his person so that he smelled like a 
walking Cologne-bottle, fully shared. Fearing lest 
the Poles might remonstrate against his departure, 
one dark tempestuous night he quitted his palace 
at Cracow by stealth, thus abandoning as a fugitive 
a crown which he had gained by bribery and in- 
trigue, and in two days he reached the frontiers of 
the German empire. J 

A little later Henry joined Catharine at Lyons.§ 
On arriving at his capital, he found the seeds of 
civil war again sown ; and amid the hireling shouts 
of gratulation which hailed his presence, he heard 



* Davila, liv. 5, p. 671. 

t Matthieu, liv. 7. De Thou ; liv. 58. 

§ Duncan, p. 143. Browning, p. 171. 



f Eanke, p. 307. 



VICISSITUDES. 



387 



the ill-suppressed murmurs of seditious discon- 
tent. 

But discord was Catharine's element, she rev- 
elled in it: "I prefer to fish in troubled waters," 
said she.* She told Henry that it became the hero 
of Jarnac and Moncontour to crush sedition sword 
in hand; and the weak monarch succumbed to this 
subtle flattery, and adopted Catharine's pernicious 
counsel. Siege was at once laid to one of the in- 
surgent towns — Livron.t 

At this juncture died the cardinal of Lorraine, + 
whose infamous policy and vaulting ambition had 
bathed France in blood. He possessed great talents, 
which he devoted to the aggrandizement of his fam- 
ily, careless of the honor or advantage of his coun- 
try. He was the centre of a circle, and his relatives 
bounded its circumference ; no thoughts of national 
utility ever, even transiently, entered into his concep- 
tions of state policy. He made use of religion as the 
ladder of his ambition ;§ he embroiled the various 
members of the royal family with each other, while 
he directed their concentrated fury against the best 
subjects in the kingdom. He was a priest without 
piety, a statesman without honor, a libertine by prac- 
tice, a hypocrite by habit, avaricious, unfeeling, 
treacherous: concealing, under an engaging air of 
simulated candor, a black heart, malignant and re- 
vengeful. II 

* Brantome. t Stilly, liv. 1. 

{ Brantome, vol. 8, p. 148. 

§ "He availed himself of piety for purposes of grandeur." 
Br; ntome, vol. 8, p. 149. I! Duncan, p. 148. 



388 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Ere the court recovered from the sensation pro- 
duced by the cardinal's death, the chiefs of the in- 
surrection met at Millaud and bound themselves by 
oath to two distinct articles: the political malcon- 
tents covenanted never to lay down arms until the 
Huguenots were secured in the complete and free 
exercise of their religion; the Huguenots pledged 
themselves neither to sign a peace, nor to consent 
to a truce, till the liberation of the captive marshals 
Montmorenci and Cosb6. v ' 

Meantime the feeble garrison of Livron defied 
the utmost exertions of the royal army, and Henry 
himself went to the camp, accompanied by the 
queen mother and the court, expecting that his 
presence would insure the speedy fall of the stub- 
born town. He was mistaken ; when the besieged 
learned of his arrival before their walls, they 
crowded to the ramparts and hurled the bitterest 
insults into his ears. " Cowards," they cried, "as- 
sassins, what are you come for? Do you think 
to surprise us in our beds, and to murder us, as 
you did the admiral? Show yourselves, minions. 
Come, prove to your cost that you are unable to 
stand even against our women. "t Thus Henry was 
literally hooted from the walls of Livron ; he lost 
his heroic laurels, and raising the siege in a great 
passion, retired ignominiously to Paris.J 

The court had scarcely settled itself in the 
Louvre, ere it was startled by the news that .Aden- 
's Davila, liv. 5. Brantome, liv. 9. f Be Thou, liv. 60. 
t Mezeray, Abrege Cliron. 



VICISSITUDES. 



389 



fon, the king's brother and heir apparent to the 
throne, had escaped his mother's surveillance and 
joined the insurgents." Alen^on, whose only im- 
portance consisted in his position, for he was utterly 
destitute of talent and honesty, had been angered 
by the king's refusal to bestow upon him the lieu- 
tenant-generalship of the kingdom, which Henry 
withheld because he knew his brother's turbulent 
incompetence. 

Still, Alengon was a prince of the blood, and his 
accession to the opposition gave them increased 
strength. The confederates had nominated Conde, 
who had quitted Paris some time before, and was 
now in Germany recruiting an army for the Hu- 
guenots, as their leader, in the absence of Navarre, 
still held at court; but with rare good sense, when 
Conde heard that Alencon had joined his party, he 
conferred the nominal leadership upon that prince, 
satisfied with retaining its essence. t 

Soon the confederates had a large army in the 
field ; Conde was rapidly advancing at the head of 
his German mercenaries; and Thore Montmorenci, 
who commanded the advance guard of the main 
body, met the dukes of Guise and ALayence, broth- 
ers, and two of the ablest captains of the age, at the 
village of Dormans. The forces at once joined bat- 
tle, and after a sanguinary contest, Thore was rout- 
ed.! It was here that Guise obtained the wound in 



* Dayila, liv. 6. Mem. cle Xevers, vol. 1, p. 97. 

f Ibid. Mezerav. Browning. 

t Mem. de Bouillon, p. 137. Browning, p. 177. 



390 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the face which gained for him the surname of Le 

Balqfre* 

Alengon was soon surrounded by a number of 
distinguished gentlemen, among whom were Tu- 
rennet and La Noue. Ere long the party was still 
further reinforced by the arrival of Henry of Na- 
varre, who escaped from Paris by a stratagem, to 
the chagrin of Catharine and the rage of Henry XII4 
At Tours, Navarre renounced popery, protested 
against his abjuration of Calvinism, in 1572, as 
wrung from him in duress, and announced his de- 
termination to battle for his faith. 

The Huguenots were jubilant, and they speedily 
put fifty thousand men-at-arms in the field.§ 

Suddenly Alencon, true to his weak and perfid- 
ious nature, wavered, then went over to the court. 
Soured by the superior influence of Navarre and 
Conde in the confederate camp, he fell an easy vic- 
tim to his mother's wiles. || 

Shortly after Alen^on's defection, both parties 
wearied of the w T ar, and a treaty of pacification was 
signed.T The Huguenots again wrung from the 
reluctant court those concessions so often granted 
and so invariably infringed. But the terms now 
won were more favorable than any heretofore ob- 

e Davila, liv. 6. 

f Henry cle la Tour, Viscount Turenne, afterwards the duke of 
Bouillon, nephew of the constable Montniorenci, a young man of 
rare talent. Browning. 

% D'Aubigne, Hist, Univ.-, vol. 2, p. 188. Sully, liv. 1. Mat- 
thieu, liv. 7. § Browning, p. 179. 

|| Davila, liv. 6. H This was dated May 14, 1576. 



VICISSITUDES. 



391 



tainecl : amnesty for tlie past ; full liberty of con- 
science ; the free exercise of religion, without excep- 
tions of time or place ; the power of erecting schools 
and colleges, of convening synods, of performing 
marriage, of administering the sacraments according 
to the reformed creed ; the eligibility of Huguenots 
to office ; the liberation of all prisoners of state ; a 
promise to establish a court of justice in each par- 
liament, composed jointly and equally of Huguenots 
and Eomanists : these were among the chief clauses 
of the treaty, a treaty which was characterized at 
the time as " not a pacification, but a surrender at 
discretion of the court."* 

Yet despite Brantome's epigram, the Huguenots 
committed a gross blunder in signing the pacifica- 
tion. With their experience of the hollowness and 
treachery of Catharine and the king, it seems strange 
that they should not have known that concessions 
so ample would never be executed. Catharine's 
well-known maxim was, " Divide and govern." When 
the wily queen was hard pressed, she negotiated a 
peace, and then went deliberately to work to break 
its most solemn ratifications. 

Concerning this treaty, Davila openly confesses 
that the court never intended to fulfil their engage- 
ments; that all they aimed at was the withdrawal 
of Alencon from the coalition, and the return of the 
mercenaries to Germany. t And Sully, referring to 
the queen mother, says, " She offered more than we 
thought that we could demand; promises cost that 
** Brantoine, vol. 8. f Davila, liv. 6, p. 672. 



392 THE HUGUENOTS. 

artful princess nothing. Thus all things fell out as 
she wished ; for in making this peace she had noth- 
ing in view but the disunion of her enemies."* 

Sully and Davila were right : the treaty of pacif- 
ication was scarcely ratified before it was pro- 
nounced null and void ; not one of its articles was 
ever executed. t It produced an armistice, rather 
than a peace ; both parties rested upon their arms. 
But the apparent " surrender of the court at dis- 
cretion " was in fact another trophy won by the 
vicious statesmanship of Catharine de' Medici. 

« Sully, liv. 1. | Ibid. Duncan, p. 155. 



THE LEAGUE. 



393 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

THE LEAGUE. 

The rose-water sprinkled upon the glowing em- 
bers of the late civil strife was so far from quench- 
ing the fire, that the flame threatened at every 
moment to blaze again with increased fury. 

All parties were dissatisfied : the Huguenots, 
because they saw that they had bartered success 
for a worthless parcel of parchment promises, which 
the government had no intention of enforcing ; the 
Romanists, because they thought that their creed 
had been compromised by even the empty assent 
to tolerant concessions, whether made in good faith 
or from hypocrisy; the people at large, because 
their taxes were vastly increased, while the court 
spent their substance in riot and debauchery.* 

But two years had elapsed since Henry's acces- 
sion, yet he was clothed in dishonor. The Polish 
diet had expelled him from their throne with the 
most degrading marks of infamy ; and he now 
lounged in the court of France, occupied in seduc- 
tions, in inventing new forms of etiquette, and in 
weighty consultations with his tailor upon the cut 
of a coat or the tie of a cravat, t while his govern- 
ment was crumbling into dust. He was hated by 

* Sully, Ky. 1. Mem. de Xevers, vol. 1. 
t Ranke, p. 307. Browning, p. 182. 

17* 



394 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the reformers on account of his vices and his 
breaches of faith ; he was despised by the Roman- 
ists for his foppish imbecility.* Thus the sub- 
stance of royalty had departed from him, only the 
shadow remained. Openly bearded by the Hugue- 
nots, while the reactionists, led by the house of 
Guise, secretly conspired against his nominal au- 
thority, this miserable representative of the august 
Valois dynasty saw none but enemies abroad and 
rebels at home. His only friends, if that sacred 
name can be applied to such characters, were young 
libertines, the companions of his profligacies, whose 
extravagance and license put the seal to his unpop- 
ularity. 

Not the slightest dependence was placed upon 
the unsteady royal popinjay. On behalf of his 
party, Concl6 wrote to prince Cassimir requesting 
him to remain near the frontier with his lanzknechts, 
as great apprehension was felt that the pacification 
w r ould not be observed by the court.t 

On their part, the ultramontanists, incited by 
the gold of the Spanish king, and filled w T ith the 
venom of religious hate, longed and watched and 
plotted for the dismal tocsin to ring in once more 
the "Paris matins." They petitioned the king to 
revoke the recent edict ; they conjured him to ex- 
terminate the heretics. 

Henry's will to comply with this congenial requi- 
sition was as good as that of the fiercest fanatic in 

* Duncan, p. 155. 

f Hist, des Dernier s Troubles, vol. 1, p. 6. 



THE LEAGUE. 



395 



his kingdom ; nothing would have pleased him bet- 
ter than to figure as the hero of another St. Bar- 
tholomew. But he lacked stamina; when weighty 
obstacles were to be surmounted, his unstable and 
weak nature succumbed. Wary and dissembling as 
he was, he made use of an expression which showed 
the wish of his heart, immediately after signing the 
obnoxious treaty. The Huguenots of Rouen had 
just resumed the exercise of their worship, and the 
cardinal of Bourbon, accompanied by several coun- 
sellors, went to their rendezvous to prevent the ser- 
vice. He entered without difficulty, but when he 
mounted the pulpit and began to speak, the evan- 
gelicals quitted the building and left him to address 
empty benches. Some one told the king that the 
cardinal had dispersed the Huguenots of Piouen by 
a flourish of his cross and banner. " Is 't so ?" cried 
Henry ; " would to God they could be as easily 
driven from the other towns, were it even necessary 
to add the holy-water basin."* 

But the ultramontanists distrusted Henry's 
pluck, and they despised his lack of vigor. There- 
fore they determined to choose a fitter leader, and 
to league themselves together by an oath to extir- 
pate heresy, and to exclude the Huguenots from 
participation in the government.! 

Such, in its inception, was the famous League ; 
such was its abhorrent and fanatic object. Later, 
as we shall see, it assumed an additional phase. 

* Ainirault, Vie de la Xoue. p. 191; cited by Browning, p. 181. 
f Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue. Caret, Brant., Brown., etc. 



396 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



There is a little cabinet in the castle of Joinville 
which has long been pointed o,ut as the chamber in 
which the league was formed. There, in 1576, there 
were assembled Tassis and Moreo, two delegates of 
the king of Spain, the dukes of Guise and Mayenne, 
who also represented the cardinal of Guise and the 
dukes D'Aumale and Elbceuf ; and besides these, a 
delegate of the cardinal of Bourbon. A covenant 
was drawn up and signed, Henry duke of Guise was 
appointed chief of the association, 4 '" and under the 
pretext of religion, a terrible, secret, and atrocious 
society was launched which, like the Jesuits who 
reinforced it, plotted in the dark, used all weapons 
of deceit and fraud and force, and ere long drench- 
ed Europe in blood. t 

° Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue. Cayet, Erantoine, Browning, 
etc. Banke, p. 340. 

f The ipsissima verba of the League, translated, were as follows: 

' ' In the name of the most holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, our only true God, to whom be glory and honor. The cov- 
enant of the princes, lords, and gentlemen of the Eomish religion 
ought to be made, and hereby is made, to establish the law of God 
in its purity, and to restore and settle his holy service according 
to the form and manner of the apostolic Eoman church, abjuring 
and renouncing all errors contrary to it. 

' ' Secondly, it is made to preserve king Henry, the third of that 
name, and his successors the most Christian kings, the state, hon- 
or, authority, duty, service, and obedience owed by his and their 
subjects, as the same are contained in the articles which shall be 
presented to him in the assembly of states, and which he swore 
and promised to observe at the time of his consecration and coro- 
nation, with a solemn protestation not to do any act against what 
shall be ordained and settled by the state. 

''Thirdly, to restore unto the provinces of this kingdom, and 
to those other states which are under it, those ancient rights, pre- 
eminences, liberties, and privileges, which existed in the time of 



THE LEAGUE. 



397 



As in antiquity Athens cannot be thought of 
without Sparta, Rome without Carthage, so in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries France can 

Clovis, the first most Christian king, or others better and more 
profitable — if any such can be* found — under the same protec- 
tion. 

"In case there be any impediment, opposition, or rebellion 
against what has been premised, be it f rom whom it will, or proceed 
from whencesoever it may, those who enter into this covenant shall 
be bound and obliged to employ their lives and fortunes to pun- 
ish, chastise, and prosecute those who may attempt to disturb it 
or prevent its execution, and shall never cease their endeavors till 
the aforesaid things be done and perfected. 

"In case any of the confederates, their friends, vassals, or de- 
pendents, be oppressed, molested, or questioned for this cause, be 
it by whom it mill, they shall be bound to employ their goods, es- 
tates, and persons, to take vengeance upon those who shall have 
so molested them, either by way of justice or force, without any 
exceptions of persons whatsoever. 

"If it shall come to pass that any man, after uniting himself 
by oath to this confederacy, shall desire to depart from it, or sep- 
arate himself on any pretence or excuse — which God forbid — such 
violators of their own consciences shall be punished both in. their 
bodies and goods, by all means that can be thought of, as enemies 
of God and rebels and disturbers of the public peace ; nor shall 
the aforesaid associates be liable to be questioned for any punish- 
ment they may inflict, either in public or private. 

"The said associates shall likewise swear to yield ready obedi- 
ence and faithful service unto that head who shall be appointed ; 
to follow and obey him, and to lend all help, counsel, and assist- 
ance, as well for the entire conservation and maintenance of this 
league, as for the ruin of all who raay oppose it, without partiality 
or exception of persons ; and those who fail or depart from it shall 
be punished by the authority of the head, and according to his 
orders, to which every confederate shall be obliged to submit 
himself. 

"All Eomanists of the several towns, villages, and cities shall 
be secretly advertised and warned by the particular governors of 
places to enter into this league, and concur in the finding of men, 
arias, and other necessaries, every one accordirg to his adjudged 



398 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



neither be comprehended nor understood without 
the counterpart of the Spanish monarchy. 

What was it that Francis I. and Charles V. con- 
tended for in their time ? The emperor sought to 
realize that universal supremacy wdiich was con- 
nected in theory with his title; Francis maintained 
the idea of France. There was now no danger to 
be apprehended from the Capuchin emperor ; but 
his son and successor, powerful in the possession 
of extensive territories and the gold of the Indies, 
renewed the claim to Spanish predominance, and 
stepped forth himself as the champion of the an- 
cient faith against its assailants. In the adherents 
of the Vatican he met wdth warm supporters, by 
whose assent he assumed the position and author- 
ity of head of the reactionists generally throughout 
Europe. 

The League then was largely his idea, and 

condition and ability. All the confederates shall be prohibited 
from stirring up any discord, or entering into any dispute among 
themselves, without leave of the head, to whose arbitrament all 
discussions shall be referred, as also the settlement of all differ- 
ences, as well in matters of goods as of good name ; and all of 
them shall be obliged to swear in the manner and form following: 
'I swear by God the Creator — laying my hand upon the holy gos- 
pel — and under pain of excommunication and eternal damnation, 
that I enter into this holy Roman league according to the form of 
that writing which has now been read to me, and that I do faith- 
fully and sincerely enter into it either to command or obey, as I 
shall be directed ; and I promise on my life and honor to continue 
in it to the last drop of my blood, and not to depart from it or 
transgress it for any command, pretence, excuse, or occasion which 
by any means whatsoever maybe represented to me.'" Davila, 
liv. 6, p. 223, et seq. 



THE LEAGUE. 



399 



Guise became merely the lieutenant of Philip II. 
when he assumed the nominal leadership.* 

The emissaries of the new society circulated the 
forms of the coyenant with equal celerity and se- 
crecy : at first no proselytes were made ; only papists 
of known zeal and discretion signed the rolls and 
took the oath, for the association did not mean to 
strike a hasty blow ; they intended rather to perfect 
their organization at leisure, and to await an aus- 
picious moment for the manifestation of their pro- 
digious power. t 

Thus the League lay coiled and torpid, like a 
huge serpent, ready to spring upon the victim y\\hen 
eyents should warm it into yicious life. 

Meantime, towards the close of the year 1576, 
the states-general were conyened at Blois ;% France 
was agitated ; Henry had just learned by accident§ 
of the formation of the League ; the Huguenots 
were clamorous for the enforcement of the edict of 
po.cification ; the papists were mutinous; chaos 
seemed come again. The king was alarmed. The 
League boldly demanded war ; he felt himself too 
weak to resent their insolence ; yet to yield was in 
effect an abdication. In an unhappy moment 
Henry determined himself to head the LeagueJI to 
become the chief of a faction, instead of the soyer- 
eign of a nation. 

. * Kanke, p. 305. 
f Anque'til, Esprit de la Ligue. Mainibourg, Hist, de la Eigne, 
t Cayet, liv. 1, p. 10. De Thou, liv. 63. 
§ Browning, p. 163. Maimbourg, Hist, de la Ligue, vol. 1. 
|| De Thou, Perefixe, La Grain. 



4,11 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



This manoeuvre disconcerted the confederates; 
but instantly recovering their equanimity, they dis- 
patched the duke of Guise to visit the king, and 
enjoin him as a member of the holy union to annul 
the last edict and proclaim war.* It was however 
desirable that, before the sword was unsheathed, 
Navarre, Conde, and D'Amville should be sum- 
moned to obey the king, in order that on their re- 
fusal to recant, the responsibility of the ensuing 
strife might appear to rest on their heads. t 

This was done. Navarre declared that " if God 
opened his eyes that he might see his error, not 
only would he immediately abjure it, but he would 
contribute his utmost efforts to abolish heresy alto- 
gether,":}: a speech which has been well said to be 
characteristic of the epoch. Navarre was at the 
time in arms for liberty of conscience, and yet de- 
clared his readiness to become a persecutor if a 
change took place in his opinions, a remark which 
actually justified the leaguers in their course, and 
which cried Amen to the tortuous diplomacy of 
Catharine de' Medici. 

The deputies to Concl6 and D'Amville received 
this answer : " We ask only for peace ; let the prom- 
ises given us be fulfilled, and all will be well ; be- 
sides, we do not acknowledge your states-general, 
and we protest against every resolution there made 
to our prejudice."! 



• De Thou, Perefixe, La Grain, 
t Mem. de Nevers, vol. 1, p. 451. 
§ De Thou, liv. 63. 



t Ibid. 



THE LEAGUE. 



401 



Towards the close of March, 1577, the war re- 
commenced ; the campaign, however, was a tedious 
one; little was accomplished on either side ; it was 
a war of skirmishes. The League, persuaded that 
their policy dictated patient preparation, and con- 
vinced that they were not yet fit to take the field, 
dissembled ; and Henry, true to his weak nature, 
speedily tired of the contest when no longer 
hounded on by bolder rogues. The consequence 
was the conclusion of a new treaty at Bergerac, in 
September, 1577,* which was immediately followed 
by the edict of Poictiers,t confirming, in all essen- 
tial respects, the tolerant enactments of the past.; 

Peace — if a society torn by feuds and cursed by 
incessant ententes, can be said ever to enjoy that 
blessing — now reigned through three years. 

In 1580, a wanton insult offered by king Henry 
to the queen of Xavarre, by a brother to a sister, 
again kindled war. Henry, impelled by his love of 
mischief or by his dislike of Navarre, wrote that 
prince that Turenne was criminally intimate with 
Margaret. § 

Both Turenne and the queen were naturally 
indignant at this insult, with which Xavarre ac- 
quainted them by showing the royal letter, and 
they spared no pains to precipitate another revo- 
lution. 

This contest had no religious basis ; yet such 
was the peculiarity of the times, that in any trouble 

° Davila, liv. 6. f Ibid. Mem. de Nevers. 

J Browning, p. 188. § D'Aubigne, vol. 2, p. 3^5. 



402 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the chiefs of either party could depend upon the 
support of their partisans, who took it for granted 
that the object for which they battled was just. 

After raging fiercely for some months, the 
"Lover's war," as it was called on account of its 
origin, was concluded by another pacification, and 
weary France again rested for a moment from in- 
ternecine butchery.* 

But the kingdom had undergone so many and 
such violent convulsions, had become so habituated 
to martial strife, that a parchment treaty had no 
pow r er to tranquillize it. The civil wars had cre- 
ated a distaste for the ordinary occupations of life ; 
a large portion of the population, demoralized by 
the camp, hated whatever made for peace ; the 
country swarmed with banditti; bravos, ready to 
assassinate or to plunder, awaited employment in 
the open market-place. t Such was France under 
the imbecile sceptre of Henry III. ; but while the 
papists, in the excess of their fanatic zeal, did not 
scruple to charge these crying evils to the preva- 
lence of heresy, the Huguenots, with better philos- 
ophy, attributed them to the wickedness of France, 
abandoned to licentious despots and the whims of 
fanaticism ; no text was more frequent upon their 
lips than this : " Righteousness exalteth a nation ; 
but sin is a reproach to any people." 

* Browning, p. 193. 

f Mezeray, De Borg, Life of Henry IV., Vie de Henri III., etc. 



THE THREE HENRIES. 



403 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

THE WAR OF THE THREE HENRIES. 

In June, 1584, the duke of Alengon died at 
Chateau-Thierry, a castle on his apanage, and his 
demise opened a vast field to those intriguers who 
were fomenting civil "war.* 

Instantly the torpid League sprang to its feet, 
full of Satanic energy, and prepared for action. In 
the reigning monarch the house of Valois became 
extinct. Henry had been married ten years, but 
he was childless ; by the death of Alencon, Xa- 
varre of the line of Bourbon became next heir to 
the throne. This the Salic law decreed ; this ab- 
stract right not the fiercest bio*ot Questioned. t But 
the Navarrese prince was a Huguenot ; and the 
champions of the Vatican in France appealed 
through the League to the intolerant passions of 
the people, affirming that the accession of a Cal- 
yinist monarch would necessitate the overthrow of 
Latin orthodoxy. J 

The chiefs of the League were again convened 
at Guise's castle of Joinville, and to this rendez- 
vous Philip of Spain also sent his delegates. A 
pronunciamento was agreed on. and shortly pub- 
lished.! Proceeding from the fundamental princi- 

* Brantorue, Duncan, Mem. de Nevers. 

f Pasqoier; Browning, p. 196. { Ibid. Duncan, p. 17A. 

§ Mem. de Nevers, Davila, Hist, de la Ligue. 



404 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



pie that a heretic could not be king of France, this 
paper declared the League to be of one mind, that 
the sceptre should not pass to the king of Navarre, 
but to his uncle the cardinal of Bourbon, a younger 
brother of that renegade Antony, who married Jane 
d' Albr^t, and from whom these claims were derived.* 
The cardinal, by his plenipotentiary, joined the 
union and adopted the shibboleth. Further, the 
League was announced to be intended to effect the 
extirpation of the Huguenots not only in France, 
but also in the Netherlands. t The king of Spain 
promised for the first year a subsidy of one million 
scudi.J The French princes, on their part, regard- 
ing themselves as already clothed in the royal pur- 
ple, bound themselves to renounce the alliance with 
the Ottoman Porte ; to give up the system of piracy 
carried on in the West Indian waters ; to restore 
Cambray, wrung from Philip by the valor of the 
Protestants ; and to assist Spain in the subjugation 
of the Netherlands.! 

Such, in its main features, was the extraordi- 
nary treaty concluded between the traitorous sub- 
jects of Henry III. and the Spanish government, 
without the consent, nay, without the knowledge of 
the king of France.il 

"When Henry learned of the mischief which was 
brewing, he was prodigiously startled. One of his 
favorites, Epernon, was hastily dispatched to Henry 



Banke, p. 340. f Davila, liv. 6. Duncan, p. 176. 

% Hist, de la Ligue. § Ibid. Maimbourg. 

|| De Thou, liv. 81. Villeroy, vol. 3. 



THE THREE HENRIES. 



405 



of Navarre, to offer him the undisputed succession, 
provided he would return to the court, renounce 
his creed, and reconcile himself to Rome.* 

The League, in its turn, was now startled. Mat- 
thieu, a Jesuit, who was nicknamed the courier of 
the League, was sent to Rome to procure the pon- 
tiff's dispensation for the action of the confedera- 
tion, a move which looked to the murder of the 
king.t But Gregory XIII. steadily refused to sign 
any document, while his verbal answers were al- 
ways expressed with non-committal craft.']: 

In the mean time Epernon had been received 
by Henry of Navarre with courtesy. The Navarrese 
prince hesitated. By renouncing Calvinism he 
smoothed Lis path to the throne, but he distrusted 
the sincerity of the court : he feared to exchange 
his present independence for a gorgeous imprison- 
ment ; nay, more, should the Guises . regain the 
ascendency, his assassination was certain. He was 
also much influenced by the recent conduct of his 
wife, who was separated from him, and who led a 
licentious life in Auvergne. He felt that he would 
be obliged to receive her back to secure the sincere 
friendship of the queen mother and the king, if any 
such quality as sincerity could be expected from 
Henry III., whose other name was duplicity, and 
from Catharine, whose synonym was treachery. 

These considerations made him finally resolve 
neither to embrace Romanism nor to return to the 



0 Duncan, p. 179. 
+ Ibid. 



•j- Duncan, Davila, D'Aubigne. 



406 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



court ; but lie offered to assist the king against the 
League, and declared himself open to conviction 
in religion.* 

Just as Henry III. received this answer, and 
stood deeply lamenting the failure of the negotia- 
tion, the leaguers, who had assembled at Gaillon, 
in the neighborhood of Rouen, published a mani- 
festo declaring war wdthout aw T aiting the king's 
assent, artfully blending together the interests of 
religion, the privileges of the nobles, and the op- 
pressions of the poor ; demanding the definitive 
revocation of all tolerant edicts, and dictating the 
expulsion of the Huguenots from France.t 

The emissaries of the League then seized every 
strong -hold which they could surprise ;% while 
Cruise, at the head of an insignificant army, ren- 
dezvoused at Chalons, and anxiously awaited rein- 
forcement.! 

The king published a counter-declaration, in 
which he appeared rather to justify his imbecile 
government than to condemn the rebellion. " For- 
getting the arms which nature and necessity pre- 
sented to him, he had recourse to pen and paper," 
says a satirical contemporary ; " but so tamely that 
you would say he did not dare to name his enemy, 
and that he resembled a man w T ho complains with- 
out saying who has beaten him."|| 

* Duncan, p. 181 ; Hist, de la Ligue ; Yie de Henri III., etc. 
f De Thou, liv. 81. Davila, liv. 7. This paper was dated 
March 13. 1585. { Maimbourg, Hist, de la Ligue. 

§ Ibid. Browning, p. 201. 
|| Hist, des Derniers Troubles; liv. 1, p. 20. 



THE THREE HENRIES. 



407 



The king's appeal produced no effect ; not a 
sword was drawn. 

Had Henry possessed either courage or energy, 
he might have easily dispersed Guise's nucleus 
force. Indeed Guise himself said to Nangis, when 
that gentleman asked him what he should do if the 
king assailed him, " Retire as quickly as possible 
to Germany, and await a more favorable opportu- 
nity."* 

But when fear chills the heart and paralyzes 
the arm of a sovereign, all is lost ; the audacity of 
revolt increases with impunity. Could Henry have 
exhibited the conqueror of Jarnac, he would have 
insured tranquillity. But anxious to appease the 
insurgents, not to quell them, he entreated the 
queen mother to meet Guise, assure him of his 
friendship, and accede to the terms of the League, 
rather than disturb the peace of France, t 

Lyons, Bourges, Orleans, Angers, had succumb- 
ed to his feeble army, and Guise, emboldened by 
success, met Catharine with an air of bravado, and 
with rare insolence actually dictated a peace to his 
king. A request, signed by himself and the cardi- 
nal of Bourbon, was presented, demanding an edict 
for the extirpation of heresy, the forcible expulsion 
of the Huguenots from the kingdom, a pledge from 
Henry to adhere to the League, and to renounce 
the protection of Geneva.* 



8 Hero, de Beauvais Nangis. 

f Hist, des Dernier s Troubles ; Mezeray. 

% Davila, De Thou. 



408 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



This "request" was at once adopted, and the 
royal imbecile signed the ignominious treaty at 
Nemours on the 7th of July, 1585.* From this 
hour Henry III. ceased to be de facto king of 
France ; he was merely the nominal chief of a re- 
ligious faction. He himself felt this, and he once 
said with a touch of pathos, " 'Tis true that I wear 
the crown, but Guise is the king of hearts. "t The 
king now came to hate Guise with the peculiar 
virulence of a weak and treacherous nature, and he 
determined to avail himself of the first opportunity 
to avenge his humbled honor by the stiletto of a 
bravo. " This overpowerful subject," muttered he, 
" must be swept from my path." 

The Huguenots received the intelligence of this 
fatal treaty with grief and consternation. The king 
of Navarre was astounded. Conde's troops had 
been largely disbanded ; the party were unprepared 
for war ; the fiercest harry yet organized, sanctioned 
by the king, was about to swoop upon them. So 
terrible was Navarre's agony, says the historian 
Matthieu, that " his mustachios became white in a 
night."J 

But unlike the king, his energy and fertility of 
resource were not to be paralyzed by danger, either 
menaced or present. With Titanic zeal he labored 
to save imperilled Christianity. Negotiations with 
Protestant powers abroad were opened ; the home 
partisans of reform were summoned to assemble ; 

* Matthieu. f Ranke, p, 366. 

% Matthieu, Hist, de France, liv. 8, p. 501. 



THE THEEE HENRIES. 



Conde went into Germany to recruit his lanzk/neclits : 
Navarre published an appeal to Christendom, in 
which he complained of being stigmatized as a re- 
lapsed heretic, a persecutor of the church, a dis- 
turber of the state, false and malicious libels on his 
character invented to deprive him of the royal suc- 
cession ; declared that he had been compelled to 
appear to abjure his faith on the St. Bartholomew 
to save his life; that he was open to conviction, 
but that efforts had always been made to destroy 
rather than convert him : he repudiated the accu- 
sation of persecuting the papists, showing that 
many of that creed held high offices in his heredi- 
tary domains, and that others were constantly in 
attendance upon his person : he averred that he 
had never molested the persons nor touched the 
revenues of the Romish priests ; offered to place 
all his fortresses in the king's hands if the Guises 
and their adherents would imitate his example ; 
denounced the ambition of the house of Lorraine ; 
and concluded by giving the lie to his enemies, and 
offering to decide the quarrel with the duke of Guise 
according to the chivalric habit of the times, by 
combat, either singly, or with two, ten, or twenty 
on a side.* 

This manifesto produced a profound sensation. t 
Liberal Europe cried, Amen. His friends displayed 
increased devotion; the indifferent joined him, part- 
ly from admiration for his fortitude, partly because 

* Gayetj iiv. 1, p. 8. Browning, p. 202. Mem. de Duplessis. 
f Ibid. 

Huguenots. 18 



410 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



they were clear-sighted enough to perceive that he 
was the victim of a base and unprincipled faction, 
who, to compass their ambitious views, would haz- 
ard laying France prostrate at the feet of Spain. 

Small detachments of cavaliers reached Navarre 
from time to time, the precursors of more formida- 
ble levies ; and this prince, who was supposed by 
many to be preparing for flight, was soon strong 
enough to attack the overconfident League.* 

Thus Navarre was supported by his own indom- 
itable heroism, by the enthusiasm of his party, by 
the prayers of the righteous, and by God's all-pow- 
erful hand. 

The contest at once commenced. It was called, 
The War of the three Henries^ — Henry III. at the 
head of the royalists, Henry of Guise at the head 
of the leaguers, and Henry of Navarre at the head 
of the Huguenots. 

At this critical juncture pope Gregory XIII. 
died. He had steadily refused to identify himself 
with the League, or to put the Bourbon princes out 
of the pale of the church : " I will leave the door 
open for their conversion," said he4 He was suc- 
ceeded by Felici Paretti, a fanatical friar of the 
Franciscan order, who assumed the tiara under the 
title of Sextus V.§ This pontiff had no scruples ; 
he excommunicated Navarre and Cond6, stigmatiz- 
ing them as relapsed heretics ; as such he declared 
them incapable of the royal succession ; he de- 

* Duncan, p. 191. f Ibid. % Ibid., p. 196. 

§ Banke, Hist, of the Popes. Hist, des Derniers Troubles. 



THE THEEE HENRIES. 



411 



prived them of their estates, absolved their subjects 
and vassals from allegiance, and menaced with 
anathema all who should thenceforth serve them 
either in a civil or military capacity."* 

Unawed by this brutum f cdmen, the Bourbon 
princes preserved their serenity, and even posted 
on the walls of the Vatican a protest against the 
anathema.t 

But this authoritative voice from the " holy of 
holies " at Borne consolidated the League, con- 
firmed many doubting consciences, and gave Guise 
prestige. Even Catharine was awed into the cessa- 
tion of her machinations. Croaking, "Divide and 
govern," she had ventured to negotiate with Na- 
varre, and to give him covert aid; for she feared 
lest Guise might be too successful, and thereby de- 
stroy the political balance. Guise discovered this 
move, and shaking his finger menacingly, bade the 
withered old diplomat beware of approaching the 
abyss of excommunication ; and the queen mother 
shrank back affrighted. % 

The League was jubilant ; the sanction of the 
pontiff was the text of every Jesuit sermon. The 
fanatics declared that victory was sure to follow a 
banner blessed by the vicegerent of God ; and the 
zealots already in imagination celebrated the extir- 
pation of heresy. 

Still, on the whole, the moral effect of this inso- 
lent interference was favorable to the Huguenots. 

* Browning, p. 204. f Duncan, pp. 196, 197. 

% Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France. 



412 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



The calmer and more reflecting members of the 
body politic deprecated the pope's presumption. 
They perceived that it struck at the civil franchises 
of the kingdom, and might be twisted into a prece- 
dent dangerous to the privileges of the Gallican 
church.* 

The pontiff's fiat did indeed detach numerous 
partisans from the Huguenot banner, but these 
were of the lowest and most ignorant class. As a 
compensation, many gantiemen of rank openly ad- 
hered to Navarre ; while others who did not choose 
publicly to join him, stood neutral, or favored him 
in secret. The gauntlet he had flung down to 
Guise and which the chief of the League had not 
ventured to take up, his defiance of the pope, the 
severe misfortunes which he had incurred, all com- 
bined to make Navarre an object of interest, of ad- 
miration, of pity ; they gained him the active sym- 
pathy of the good, the generous, and the heroic. 

The Swiss cantons sent deputies to Henry to 
intercede for the Huguenots. t The Germans, ani- 
mated by the eloquence of the famous Theodore 
Beza, who had pleaded the cause of the Reforma- 
tion before Charles IX. in happier years, armed in 
defence of their coreligionists, and enthusiasm gave 
to their movements the character of a Protestant 
crusade.^ 

Henry of Navarre took the field : under such a 
leader, small bodies equalled armies. He marched 

* Duncan, p. 197. f Mainibourg, Hist, du Caivinisme. 
J Davila, Perenxe, Duncan. 



THE THKEE HENRIES. 



413 



from victory to victory. Fired by his spirit, his 
troops captured fortresses, subjugated provinces, 
and baffled the most subtle tactics of Mayenne.* 

On the 20th of October, 1587, the battle of Cou- 
tras was fought. The royalists, commanded by the 
duke of Joyeuse, were confident, well equipped, and 
ten thousand strong.! 

The Huguenot arm}' was composed of four thou- 
sand infantry and two thousand five hundred cav- 
alry ; but the disparity of numbers was balanced 
by discipline. Joyeuse was a courtier ; Navarre 
was a soldier. The duke's officers were dressed in 
richly ornamented costume, and their helmets were 
adorned by brilliant plumes ; the Huguenots dis- 
played naught but iron, and arms rusty with rain. 
It was the army of Darius against that of Alexander. 

Navarre drew up his men-at-arms in the form 
of a crescent ; Conde and the count of Soisson were 
on his right, Turenne was upon his left. "My 
friends," cried the king, " behold a prey much more 
considerable than any of your former booties ; this 
is a bridegroom who has still the nuptial present in 
his pocket, and all the chief courtiers with him."J 
Then turning to Conde and Soisson, he said, " All 
that I shall observe to you is, that you are of the 
house of Bourbon, and, please God, I will show you 
that I am your elder brother.' "§ 

Just as Navarre concluded, one of his principal 
supporters, Duplessis-Mornay, stepped forward, and 

c " Dayila, Perefixe, Duncan. f Mattnieu, De Thou. 

t Ibid. Perefixe. § Ibid. 



414 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



in a solemn manner reminded Henry of the great 
injury which he had done the reformed religion by 
his incontinence, and particularly by the recent and 
notorious seduction of a young lady of Eochelle. 
" Sire/' said this reproving Nathan, " make public 
reparation for your misconduct, lest God send de- 
feat as a judgment upon your so many sins."* 

Henry, influenced either by religious feeling, or 
considering that the ardor of his soldiers would be 
heightened by the freedom of their cause from so 
foul a stigma, consented publicly to avow his fault 
in the church of Pau, and also to confess it on his 
first visit to Eochelle. He then knelt, together with 
the whole army, while prayer was offered to the 
God of battle. 

This spectacle, instead of awakening respect in 
Joyeuse's mind, only confirmed his vain confidence. 
"See," cried he with a chuckle, " they kneel, they 
tremble ; the day is ours." Laverdin, an old sol- 
dier, who was familiar with the habits of the Hu- 
guenots, replied, " Nay, my lord, you mistake. 'T is 
their custom ; they always pray when they mean 
either to conquer or die."t 

The battle was decided in half an hour. The 
courtiers were no match for the soldiers of Christ. 
The royalists routed ; five thousand dead ; five hun- 
dred prisoners; Joyeuse slain : such were the fruits 
of this brilliant victory 4 



* Vie de Duple ssis-Mornay, liv. 1. p. 108. 

f Journal de Henri III. 

i Davila, liv. 8. Cayet, vol. 1, p. 38. 



THE THEEE HENRIES. 



415 



The Bourbon princes performed prodigies of 
valor on that day, but Navarre eclipsed them all. 
He fought like the paladin of a fairy tale. A white 
plume fastened in his helmet made him conspicu- 
ous. When some of his friends, esteeming him 
menaced, threw themselves in front of him to shield 
his person, he cried, "Give me room, I beseech you; 
you stifle me : I would be seen."* 

Henry did not press his victory; indeed he is 
charged with having frittered it away. Quitting 
the army, which he left under the charge of Tu- 
renne, he repaired to Beam and laid at the feet of 
the duchess de Guiche, of whom he was enamoured, 
the color;? captured, at Coutras.t He dwarfed the 
heroic Henry of the battle-plain to the dandy car- 
pet-knight of a courtesan's boudoir — a sad metamor- 
phosis, shameful to the prince, and insulting to his 
God. 

To say nothing of his duty as a professed Chris- 
tian, he ought not, as an able captain, to have bar- 
tered success for a lady's smile; he ought not to 
have muddled the future by leaving it to the chap- 
ter of accidents, w\hen, by energetic action, he might 
have anchored God's cause and his country's. 

§ La Grani, Decade de Henri Quatre, tome 4. 
f Yie de Duplessis-Mornay, p. 111. D'Aubigne', Hist. Univ., 
vol. 3, p. 58. 



416 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEB XXX. 

THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 

Tedious negotiations, which had no effect, fol- 
lowed the battle of Contrast In the meanwhile 
Guise was winning laurels at the head waters of 
the . Loire. His name was on every papist's lips. 
Henry III., jealous of this renown, himself departed 
for the army ; but he arrived only in time to see 
the hated Guise entwine the laurel about his brow ; 
so that when the king returned to Parjs, armed 
cap-a-pie, with the port of a warrior, the witty citi- 
zens only lampooned his vanity and satirized his 
assumption of stolen honors.t 

But Guise was the popular idol. The metropo- 
lis especially resounded with paeans in his praise. 
The "new David," the "second Moses," the "mod- 
ern Gideon," "the prop and pillar of holy church," 
such were the titles showered upon him. Every 
cafe in Paris hymned his virtues. 

This adulation turned Guise's head. Hurried 
away by the madness of ambition, he summoned 
his family to assemble at Nancy ; and here the 
house of Lorraine matured a scheme for deposing 
the king, immuring him in a cloister, and crowning 
Henry of Guise 4 

* Duncan ; Vie de Henri III. f Ibid. ; Brantorne. 

\ Ibid. ; Davila ; De Thou ; Mem. de Nevers ; James, Life of 
Henry IV. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 417 



This shows how little interest the princes of Lor- 
raine really took in religion ; they only used it as a 
vehicle in which to ride to empire. Their simple, 
sole object in every manoeuvre, from the very incep- 
tion of these troubles in the reign of Francis L, 
through forty years of internecine strife, was the 
aggrandizement of their mushroom house.* To 
that every thing was made to bend — the public 
weal, religious honor, the good faith of the state : 
the weightiest interests were transmuted into bat- 
tledoors. 

The convocation at Nancy masked its real de- 
sign, the usurpation of the throne by Guise ; and 
committing to writing a series of insolent demands, 
forwarded them to the king. This precious docu- 
ment was not a petition ; it was a command. Signed 
by the Guises, the cardinal of Bourbon, and other 
principal chiefs of the League, it imperiously de- 
manded that the king should banish from his court 
all persons who were from any cause obnoxious to 
the "holy union;" that he should publish and en- 
force the decrees of the Council of Trent, place in 
the hands of the confederates such towns and for- 
tresses as they might see fit, the crown paying the 
garrisons and all costs of fortification, and confiscate 

* The cardinal of Guise used frequently to say that he should 
never die happy until he held the king's head between his knees, 
to fit on a monk's cowl. Madame de Montpensier, sister to the 
Guises, wished to use her own scissors to make the cowl. The 
device of Henry III. was three crowns, with the motto. Manet ultima 
Coelo. The leaguers travestied it into Manet ultima Claustro. 
Notes to the "Henriade." 

18* 



418 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



the Huguenot estates to defray the expenses of the 
war of extermination/ 

Henry III. was quite broken by this daring inso- 
lence. As was usual with him when perplexed, he 
ajoplied to the queen mother for assistance.t Dis- 
cord reigned in the privy council, One set of the 
king's minions favored the League; another urged 
the monarch to identify himself with Navarre, and 
strangle that presumptuous union, the pest of 
France.J In accordance with the weak vacillation 
of his character, he took neither counsel, but con- 
tenting himself with half measures, which in stormy 
crises always disgust both parties, he sent the con- 
spirators at Nancy word that he would consider 
their petition.§ 

Guise, emboldened by the king's timidity, now 
resolved to strike a decisive blow. His friends were 
ready ; he was sure of the capital ; the omens were 
auspicious ; he determined to proceed to Paris, and 
seize Henry during the celebration of the carnival.ll 

Despite the written and reiterated orders of his 

sovereign not to quit the camp, he entered Paris on 

the 9th of May, 1588,1 at high noon. Ere he had 

passed half through the city, he was recognized and 

thronged by the admiring mob. Thirty thousand 

people formed his retinue.** " The shouts of the 

people," says an eye-witness, "sounded to the skies; 

* De Thou, liv. 90. Cayet, liv. 1, p. 44. f Ibid. 

J Duncan, p. 214. 

§ Mem. de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 269, et seq. Duncan, p. 215. 
|| Esprit de la Ligue, torn. 2, p. 144. 

n Vie de Henri III. ; Duncan, etc. ** Davila, liv. 8. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 419 



nor did tliey ever cry, Viye LE Roy, as energetically 
as they now shouted, Vive Guise. Some saluted 
him, some gave him thanks, some bowed to him, 
others kissed the hem of his garment. Those who 
could not get near him manifested their joy by ges- 
tures ; some were seen who, adoring him as a saint, 
and touching him with their beads, either kissed 
them or pressed them against their eyes and fore- 
heads. Even the women, throwing green leaves 
and blooming flowers from their windows, honored 
and blessed his coming. 

" Guise, with a smiling countenance and gra- 
cious air, showed himself affable to some in words, 
to some by courteously returning their salutations ; 
others he requited with kind looks. Passing through 
the throng with his hat off, he omitted nothing that 
was calculated to win and rivet the affection and 
applause of the people."* 

Such was the reception awarded to the " king of 
Paris." Guise, intoxicated by this adulation, had 
the hardihood to visit the Louvre. Catharine was 
aghast. She received him pale, trembling, and 
dismayed. Henry's consternation may not be de- 
scribed. The impudent duke stood with easy non- 
chalance, enjoying the astonishment which his pres- 
ence caused, and smiling as the shouts of the pop- 
ulace, who now crowded the court of the Louvre 
and the adjacent streets, came boine to his ears on 
the exultant wind.t 

* Davila, liv. 8, p. 337. f Mairabcrarg, Hist, de la Ligue, vol. 
2, p. 323. 



420 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Henry reproached Guise for his disobedience in 
visiting the capital, and the stern look which greet- 
ed him at length made the champion of the League 
and the idol of the Parisians turn pale. After a 
stormy interview, the duke feigned fatigue, and took 
his leave amid the acclamations of the multitude.* 

In the evening Guise fortified his house and 
stored it with ammunition. Equal vigilance was 
observed at the Louvre. The Swiss were under 
arms, and every man-at-arms whom Henry could 
press into service w T as put on guard.t 

The next morning Guise again visited the Lou- 
vre ; but fearful of treachery, he was accompanied 
by four hundred armed friends. Nothing was ac- 
complished ; and in the evening further consulta- 
tions were held.* 

In the mean time every w r ile was employed to 
lash the excitable populace into a frenzy. The report 
was spread that a hundred and twenty of the chief 
leaguers were marked out for death. A counterfeit 
list was framed and circulated. Guise headed the 
victims. The people, incited by the priests, raged 
madly. Then commenced the famous barricades. 

Paris, in the reign of Henry III., was not pro- 
tected by the vigilant police of modern times. Now 
the constabulary force receives instructions from 
the crown minister ; then it was w r holly under the 
control of the municipal authorities. The city was 
then girt with w T alls, flanked by lofty towers ; the 

* Maimbourg, Hist, de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 323. Davila, liv. 9. 
t Cayet, liv. 1, p. 58. { Ibid. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 421 



gates were shut exactly at the fixed hour, and the 
sheriffs held the keys. The burgesses were formed 
into a militia, chose their own officers, and were 
frequently drilled. At the corners of the streets 
weighty chains were attached to rivets in the Houses ; 
these were stretched out at the least alarm, and 
thus all communication of one quarter of the city 
with another was impeded.* 

The people had banners, fixed places of meet- 
ing, rallying words ; and no more than a drum-tap 
or the sound of a bell was required to collect a 
mass of soldiers under arms, imperfectly disciplin- 
ed, but formidable from their number. t Paris was 
divided into sixteen districts : in each of these a 
council was formed in the interest of the League ; 
these appointed sixteen demagogue delegates, who 
made another council, called the " Council of Six- 
teen,"^: which was so famous in the religious wars 
of France. 

Now the Sixteen were in their element. The 
tocsin sounded ; the streets were unpaved ; the 
chains extended from corner to corner ; the Swiss 
guard of the king, shut up in the square before the 
church of the Innocents and isolated, were soon 
forced to surrender ; and Guise saw himself master 
of Paris by an almost bloodless coup cVecaf.t 

While these scenes were being enacted in the 
streets of his turbulent and traitorous capital, Hen- 



* Duncan, p. 214. 

t Esprit de la Ligue, torn. 2. p. 1-10. 

§ Hist. des Derniers Troubles ; Cayet ; Davila. 



t Ibid. 



422 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



ry, palsied by fear, gave up all hope. He had been 
informed of the object of Guise's visit by one of the 
repentant conspirators,* and he could not believe 
that his foe would let slip this opportunity : he 
stood disarmed and friendless ; what could save 
him? 

The craft of Catharine de' Medici extricated her 
inefficient son from Guise's net. 

The queen mother had already visited Guise, 
when he had named such hard terms as amounted 
to the abdication of the king.t Now, returning to 
the duke, she held him in protracted conversation, 
that he might have no opportunity to invest the 
Louvre, while the king prepared for instant flight. £ 

Proceeding into the garden of the Tuilleries on 
pretence of taking a promenade, Henry repaired to 
the royal stables, equipped himself for his journey, 
and immediately set off on horseback, accompa- 
nied by a suite of fifteen or twenty gentlemen, for 
Chartres, where he arrived safely the next d&j, re- 
ceiving every mark of affection and respect.§ 

In the mean while Memville, one of Guise's at- 
tendants, having ascertained that Henry had quit- 
ted Paris, burst unceremoniously into the duke's 
cabinet, interrupted the queen mother's empty ha- 
rangue, which meant only time, and flung into his 

* Nicholas Paulain, one of the conspirators, revealed every 
thing to the chancellor, named his accomplices, and offered to 
remain in prison till the truth of his report was ascertained. Tlie 
court at first doubted ; but the appearance of Guise convinced the 
king. Duncan, p. 216. f Matthieu, liv. 8, p. 549. 

{ Hist, des Derniers Troubles. § Hist, de la Ligue. 



THE DOUBLE 



ASSASSINATION. 



423 



master's ears the announcement, " The king lias 
fled from Paris." The duke started up in dismay, 
and said to Catharine, " Ah, madame, I am undone ; 
while your majesty has been detaining me, the king 
has departed to plot my ruin."* 

Catharine, versed in all the arts of dissimula- 
tion, replied, " I credit not this news," and took her 
leave. t 

Although bitterly disappointed that the grand 
prize had escaped him, Guise was not inactive, but 
took every precaution to secure the advantages 
which he had gained. He secured the Bastile, 
took St. Cloud, Yincennes, Lagry, and thus com- 
manded the free navigation of the Seine and the 
Marne to the gates of Paris, and revolutionized the 
municipal administration, filling all offices with his 
satellites. £ 

Notwithstanding these usurpations, Henry, from 
his retreat at Chartres, had the despicable weak- 
ness to open negotiations with the triumphant Pa- 
risian leaguers; and eventually a treaty was signed, 
which ratified demands very similar to those drawn 
up at Nancy.§ 

In this edict a clause was inserted which guar- 
anteed the convocation of the states-general at 
Blois on the 16th of October, 1588, to confirm the 

* Hist, de la Eigne. f Ibid. 

1 Ibid. Mem. de la Ligue. Duncan. 

§ De Thou, liv. 90. Hist, des Derniers Troubles, vol. 3, p. 
86. This edict was agreed to on the fifteenth, signed by the king 
on the sixteenth, and registered by Parliament on the twenty-first 
of July, 1588. 



424 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



treaty.* Victors thus far, the princes of Lorraine 
now used every effort to subsidize the members of 
the states-general ; religious zeal, ambition, avarice, 
all were appealed to ; they were again successful, 
and Guise was master of the assembly ere its open- 
ing session was held.t 

At the appointed time, the states-general were 
convened, and the pomp was unprecedented. The 
king, who, despite his reconciliation with the League, 
had resolutely refused to enter Paris since his igno- 
minious flight, sojourning meantime at Rouen, made 
the inaugural address. Then business commenced; 
manoeuvre succeeded manoeuvre. Guise was con- 
firmed as commander of the gendarmerie ; a prior 
decree, declaring the cardinal of Bourbon first prince 
of the blood and next heir to the throne, was as- 
sented to ; and Guise, blinded by success, moved 
that the decrees of the Council of Trent be regis- 
tered, an act which would have barred the house of 
Bourbon from the crown.J Even the lackey states 
paused here. They were not prepared to go to 
such a length. The clergy feared to jeopard the 
rights of the Gallican church ; the nobles dreaded 
any extension of the papal power over their tem- 
poralities ; the states secured a practical veto by 
postponement^ 

Guise, no whit discouraged, then moved that 
Navarre be declared incapable of the succession ; 
this was voted with alacrity. In spite of Henry's 

* Maimbourg, Hist, de la Ligue. f Duncan, p. 225. 

t Pasquier, vol. 2, p. 360. Cayet, 1, p. 97. § Ibid. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 425 



intrigues, notwithstanding his manifest reluctance 
to accede to this fiat, against the protest of Na- 
varre, who denounced the states-general as a pack- 
ed and exclusive convention of his enemies, the 
king, finding that he could neither conquer the in- 
flexible resolution of the League nor evade their 
demands, finally assented to the general vote, and 
said that he would issue an edict giving it validity.* 

The political situation was still further confused 
by the seizure of the marquisate of Saluzzo by the 
duke of Vassy, an adherent of the League. This 
aggression touched the national pride, and the voice 
of patriotism w T as heard amid the din of religious 
discord. Henry charged that Guise had instigated 
the act ; the duke asserted that the king himself 
incited it. Murmurs arose, and both Gnisards and 
royalists hated each other with increased venom. t 

It was now, while affairs were thus tangled, 
while nothing was settled, save that the Huguenots 
were outlawed, declared incapable of holding office, 
and tabooed, that Henry, driven to desperation, 
definitively decided to assassinate his subtle and 
triumphant persecutor.^ 

He had recourse to Marshal D'Aumont, a brave 
soldier, and to Nicolas D'Augenay, an able publi- 
cist : informing them of his purpose, he asked their 
opinion. " Strike," advised the cavalier in a mon- 
osyllable ; but the lawyer, with the instinct of his 
profession, counselled the duke's imprisonment and 

* Davila, liv. 9. Duncan, p. 229. 

f Journal de Henri III. Mem. de Nevers, vol. 2. \ Ibid. 



426 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



trial before the regular tribunals for high trea- 
son.* 

The soldier's advice was the most congenial, and 
the king resolved to adopt it. It was some time ere 
he obtained a willing instrument of revenge. At 
length Loignac, a partisan of Epernon, and a bitter 
foe of Guise, undertook the work. 

On the 22d of December, 1588, Henry sent word 
to Guise that, as he proposed going to Notre Dame 
de Ciery to pass the festival of Christmas, he should 
hold his daily council early the next morning. t 

Loignac then received his last instructions. 
Thirteen assassins were introduced into the coun- 
cil-chamber and hidden behind a tapestry ; and 
Henry himself gave each of them a poniard, say- 
ing, " Guise is the greatest criminal in my kingdom ; 
the laws, both human and divine, permit me to pun- 
ish him. Not being able to do so by the ordinary 
tribunals, I authorize you by my royal prerogative 
to do so." 

In the mean time the wretched victim received 
Henry's treacherous note, and unmindful of the man- 
ifold warnings which he had received to beware of 
the king, he at once repaired to the palace, where 
he arrived in the grey, bleak winter dawn. Once 
in the trap, every thing conspired to alarm the duke. 
The gates were clanged to after him with ominous 
precaution ; he passed though a long lane of sol- 
diers stretching away to the court-yard ; he met 

* De Thou,liv. 93. 

f D'Aubigne, vol. 3, p. 150. Davila, liv. 9. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 



427 



the archbishop of Lyons, a confidential friend, who 
said to him in presence of Larchant, one of the cap- 
tains of the guard, alluding to the light dress he 
wore, " That coat is too light for this season and 
2jlace. You should have put on one stiff with fur." 
These words, pronounced in accents of susjricion, 
heightened Guise's alarm. * 

In one of the anterooms he nearly fainted ; re- 
covering, he proceeded to the fatal council-chamber. 
The door had been walled up. Ignorant of this, 
Guise was in the act of raising the tapestry which 
screened the apartment, when the bravos sprang 
upon him, and ere he could draw his sword, gave 
him countless stabs, and flung him to the floor quite 
dead.t 

The false door of the council-chamber was then 
thrown down, and Henry, followed by his suite, 
emerged into the anteroom where lay his late re- 
doubted foe. The courtiers jested ; and the king 
himself, in imitation of Guise's brutality to the dead 
body of Coligny, kicked the duke's remains. J 

Having gloated his eyes with this ghastly spec- 
tacle, Henry hastened to the queen mother, and 
cried exultingly, " Madame, the king of Paris is 
dead ; I am now king of France."§ 

"I fear," replied the astute Catharine, "that 
you will soon be king of nothing." But she ex- 
horted him to wait at once upon the papal nuncio, 

* Hist, des Demiers Troubles, liv. 4; Davila. D'Aubigne, Cayet, 
and others. f Ibid. + Browning, p. 230. 

§ Davila, liv. 9. 



428 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



and avert liis displeasure, and to use diligence and 
resolution.* 

The murder of Guise caused a profound sensa- 
tion. Never was man less fit to die. He had quit- 
ted the chamber of one of the titled harlots of the 
court, the marchioness of Noirmontier, with whom 
he had passed the night, on the very morning of his 
death. He was stained by vices and crimes whose 
name was legion, and was one of the chief butchers 
of St. Bartholomew — a fearful record with which to 
face his God. 

Guise possessed many of the qualities of a po- 
litical leader. He was sagacious, affable, prepos- 
sessing in his physique, and possessed the keen, 
penetrating talent of a Machiavelli. He united in 
his single person the diplomatic acumen of his 
equally unscrupulous uncle the cardinal of Lor- 
raine, and the military genius of his father. 

Henry III. for once acted with vigor. He or- 
dered the arrest and instant execution of the car- 
dinal of Guise. Then the bodies of the unhappy 
princes were consumed in quicklime, and buried 
secretly.f Mayence also was upon the red list, 
but he escaped from Lyons to Dijon, whence he 
repaired to Paris ;X but the archbishop of Lyons, 
the old cardinal of Bourbon, the prince de Joinville, 
and the duke of Elboeuf were seized. "Hence- 
forth," cried the aroused king, "I wish my subjects 
to know that I will be obeyed. I will punish the 

* Davila, liv. 9. f Ibid., p. 373. 

% Ibid. Duncan, p. 234. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 429 



leaders of insurrection, and those who abet them. 
I will be king not merely in words, but in deeds ; 
and it will be no difficult matter for me to wield the 
sword again as I did in my youth."* 

News of the tragedy at Blois reached Paris on 
the day succeeding the assassination of the duke of 
Guise. Popular indignation vented itself in the 
bitterest and fiercest execrations. Sermons were 
preached on the martyrdom of the "king of Paris," 
and Henry was compared to Herod. Intelligence 
of the death of the cardinal of Guise soon followed, 
and the outcries of fury grew louder and deeper. 
The king was denounced as a favorer of heresy, as 
an enemy to holy church, who had dyed his hands 
in the blood of an ecclesiastic. Priest and layman 
panted for revenge. Councils of war were held in 
shops and cloisters. The statues of the king were 
broken, the royal arms were defaced ; he was called 
simply, Henry of Valois. The Sorbonne declared 
that he had forfeited the crown, and that his sub- 
jects not only might, but ought to cast off their alle- 
giance ; and this resolution was forwarded to Borne 
for the sanction of the pope.t 

In the midst of this excitement, Catharine de' 
Medici died. She breathed her last on the 5 th of 
January, 1589, in the seventieth year of her active 
and intriguing life. X 

Catharine possessed a strong intellect, persua- 



* Davila, liv. 9, p. 373. Duncan, p. 234. 

f Duncan, p. 236. Davila, liv. 9, p. 378. Notes to the "Hen- 
riade." J Cayet, liv. 2, p. 72. Perefixe. 



430 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



sive eloquence, and an invention so ready that it 
never halted for an expedient. She believed with 
the Vatican, that " the end justifies the means ;" 
and in the pursuit of her purpose, she availed her- 
self without a scruple of the most abhorrent arts, 
and especially of the licentiousness of her court. 
She was always accompanied by a bevy of fair but 
frail beauties ; and by her encouragement of vice, 
she raised it to an unparalleled height of dissolute- 
ness and infamy. 

In the exercise of her cruelty and perfidy, she 
eventually became equally detested by the papists 
and the Huguenots, both of whom she had often 
betrayed. Fighting with such poisoned weapons, 
she could not fail to be despised in each camp when 
she became known in each. 

In her stony heart maternal affection had no 
sway. She encouraged her children in habits of 
licentiousness, in order to make them subservient 
to her will. She is even accused of murdering two 
of her sons when they stood in her path ; and it is 
not questioned that she employed the poisoner's 
bowl and the stiletto of the bravo to abridge the 
lives of several rivals. The good she did France 
was imperceptible ; the evil she inflicted, the curses 
she entailed, the atrocious regime of deceit and per- 
fidy and selfish despotism which she inaugurated, 
two centuries later crazed France — drove it to blow 
its own brains out in the revolution of 1793. 

The death of the queen mother completed the 
king's embarrassment. He had leaned upon her 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 431 



counsel ; now that prop was gone. The whole 
country heaved in insurrection. City was opposed 
to city, castle to castle. In vain did Henry strive 
to appease the indignation of the League by proving 
the treason of the duke of Guise. The correspond- 
ence with Spain and Savoy, the terms of the alli- 
ance, the monies raised to arm the traitors against 
the throne, all went for nothing. The country was 
in no mood to listen to evidence ; the people were 
the slaves of unbridled passion ; they wanted not 
truth, but vengeance.* 

Nor was the monarch more successful in his 
efforts to placate the pope. When Sixtus Y. learn- 
ed through the French ambassador of the death of 
the Guises, and the imprisonment of the cardinal 
of Bourbon and the archbishop of Lyons,- his rage 
knew no bounds. " Your master," said he, " thinks 
to deceive me, and treats me as if I were no more 
than a poor monk ; but he shall find that he de- 
ceives himself, not me ; and that he has to deal with 
a pontiff who is ready to shed plenty of blood when 
the interest of his see requires it." "But, holy 
father," retorted the keen ambassador, " shall not 
the kin^ mv master be at liberty to kill the cardi- 
nal of Guise, his mortal enemy, after pope Pius IV. 
has authorized the murder of cardinal Caraffe, who 
had been one of his friends ?" Sixtus was too much 
enraged to reply to this home-thrust, so he dismiss- 
ed the minister from his presence. t 

This rebuff at the Yatican isolated the king. 

* Duncan, p. 238. f Browning, p. 235. 



432 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



He held a sceptre which he could not wield. On 
one side of the Loire the exasperated League ruled 
undisputed ; on the other, the king of Navarre gov- 
erned. Henry stood alone in the centre of his king- 
dom, without money, without friends, without an 
army.* 

He attempted to negotiate with the League ; 
but that confederacy, under the able management 
of Mayenne, who had been appointed head, had 
regained stability, and the offended brother of the 
murdered princes haughtily refused all overtures.f 

In despair, the wretched monarch recalled the 
dying advice of the queen mother. He turned to 
Navarre, and besought his forgiveness and assist- 
ance. X When this was known, the papal legate 
and the Spanish ambassador quitted him, and pro- 
ceeding to Paris, recognized the lords of the League 
as the legitimate government of France.§ 

But the Huguenot sky was propitious. Navarre 
acceded to Henry's request for an armistice ; and 
on the 30th of April, 1589, clasping hands at Plessis- 
les-Tours, the two monarchs pledged themselves to 
bury the past, to unite for the future ; and they en- 
tered Tours amid the acclamations of the soldiers 
and the inhabitants. Huguenots and royalists fra- 
ternized, and vowed to devote their consolidated 
strength to the subjugation of the League and the 
inauguration of a tolerant regime.\\ 



* Journal de Henri III. f Maimbourg, Hist, de la Ligue. 

{ Ibid. § Duncan, pp. 241, 242. 

|| La Grani, liv. 4. Perefixe, liv. 1. Sully, liv. 1. It was 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 433 



Deeply chagrined by this unexpected phase of 
affairs, Mayenne collected his squadrons and dashed 
towards Tours, hoping to surprise the kings in the 
midst of the reconciliatory fetes. He nearly suc- 
ceeded. Swooping upon Vendome, he captured it, 
and then pressed into the suburbs of Tours.* After 
a severe contest, Mayenne was forced back ; and 
retreating across France slowly and sullenly, he 
passed through St. Cloud into the friendly and shel- 
tering walls of Paris. f 

The jubilant royalists crossed the Loire close 
on Mayenne's heels. When they reached Poissy, 
they were joined by some foreign auxiliaries, ten 
thousand Swiss and four thousand Germans, whom 
the king had enlisted under his banner. These, 
added to the detachments of Longueville, Montpen- 
sier, De Givry, and Navarre, swelled Henry's army 
to forty-two thousand fighting men.;}: 

with, reluctance that Navarre went to this interview. He feared 
treachery. Many of his counsellors thought that the king would 
take Navarre's life to purchase the r^ope's absolution. Navarre 
wrote to his confidential friend Duplessis-Mornay in these terms : 
"The ice is broken, not without many warnings that if I went I 
should be a dead man. I passed the water recommending myself 
to God." Mornay answered, "Sire, you have done what you 
ought, but what none of your friends would have advised." 

Such was the apprehension of Navarre, that he halted two 
leagues from Tours, and took the opinion of his retinue whether 
to proceed or return. Sully claims the honor of having persuaded 
Bourbon to trust the good faith of Yalois. Duncan, p. 2-13, note. 

* Matthieu, liv. 8, p. 375, et seq. Maimbourg, Hist, de la 
Ligue, vol. 2, p. 161. f Ibid. 

J Davila, De Thou, Mem. de Duplessis-Mornay, Tie de Hen- 
ry in. 

Husv.enots. 10 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



The terror excited by this array reduced those 
towns which environed the capital to speedy sub- 
mission. Consternation reigned in Paris. Mayv 
enne could only muster eight thousand infantry and 
eighteen hundred cavalry. Despite his exertions, 
all the passages of the Seine were wrung from his 
control, and the approaches to the bridges fell into 
the hands of the king.* 

Paris was^ almost strangled by the besiegers, so 
closely did they clasp the throat of the rebellious 
capital. Henry in person begirt the Faubourg St. 
Honor e, and all that side of the Louvre which bor- 
ders on the river. Navarre besieged the line from 
the faubourg of St. Martin to that of St. Germain. t 

The fate of Mayenne seemed certain ; when fa- 
naticism extricated the League from the impending 
danger, and once more unsettled France. 

Fanatical opinions exercise their power oftener 
over individuals than on great corporations. From 
the midst of the common fermentation there now 
arose a monk who resolved to perpetrate a fresh 
deed of horror. This was Jacques Clement, a Do- 
minican whose passions were strong, whose princi- 
ples were libertine, and whose frenzy was unequal- 
led. He had recently been ordained a priest. To 
persons of his own age and to his friends, he was 
an object of ridicule. He was weak in body and 
simple of mind. Such are the natures on which 

* Davila, De Thou, Mem. de Duple ssis-Mornay, Vie de Hen- 
ry HI. 

f Yilleroi, vol. 5. Cayet, liv. 1. Mem. de Duplessis-Momay. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 



435 



fanaticism makes the most profound impression. 
Clement was persuaded that it was lawful to kill a 
tyrant, and he laid before his superiors the question 
whether it would be a mortal sin for a priest to as- 
sassinate a despot. He was told that it would be 
an irregularity, but no mortal sin.* Meantime ev- 
ery art was employed to heat his brain and nerve 
his hand for the atrocious deed. 

When the fanatic communicated his project to 
Mayenne and D'Aumale, they approved it.f The 
demagogue Council of Sixteen applauded it.:j: He 
was promised a cardinal's hat if he did the deed 
and escaped ; if taken and executed, he was assured 
of canonization ;§ and on the night that his resolu- 
tion was confirmed, the duchess of Montpensier sac- 
rificed all that a woman holds most dear to the 
young libertine regicide.il 

Thus doubly crazed by passion and by fanati- 
cism, Clement provided himself with forged creden- 
tials to the king ; then bidding his friends adieu, 
he passed outside the lines of the League, loosened 
his frock, and walked with rapid strides towards 
Henry's camp. After some delay, he spent the 
night within the king's lines. Clement succeeded 
in securing an audience. Henry approached him. 
Pretending to draw a paper from his sleeve, he drew 
instead a knife, which he plunged with deadly effect 
into the monarch's abdomen. " Wretch," cried the 

* Ranke, p. 396. f Matfchiexi, liv. 8, p. 772. 

t Esprit de la Ligue. Davila, liv. 10. § Ibid. 

|| Duncan, p. 245. Browning. De Thou, liv. 96, passim. 



436 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



king, "what have I done, that you should assas- 
sinate me?" and as he spoke, he drew the fatal 
blade from the wound, and struck it into the fore- 
head of the miscreant friar. La Guesle, one of the 
attendant courtiers, ran him through. His body 
was hurled from the window, where it was hacked 
to pieces by the soldiers, burned, and the ashes 
thrown into the Seine.* 

Henry lingered eighteen hours, counselled for- 
bearance, deplored the unhappy state in which he 
left France, exhorted the nobility to remain united, 
and declared Navarre to be his legitimate succes- 
sor.t Then turning to the anxious followers who 
crowded about his couch, he said, "Adieu, my 
friends ; turn your tears into prayers, and pray for 
me." Shortly after this, in the thirty-eighth year of 
his age and the fifteenth of his reign, the last of the 
house of Valois died without a struggle, while re- 
peating the miser ere.% 

Henry's death was finer than his life. Imbecile, 
vacillating, vicious, even to name his vices would 
outrage decency. Never did monarch mount the 
throne under brighter auspices ; never had a king 
more shamefully squandered his time in low de- 
bauchery, lost golden opportunities, and frittered 
away his reputation. His feebleness alienated the 
League ; his treachery disgusted the Huguenots. 

* Davila, liv. 10. Cayet, liv. 1, p. 223. Mairnbourg, Hist, de 
la Ligue, liv. 3. f De Thou, liv. 96. 

% Ibid. Hist, des Demiers Troubles, vol. 2, p. 7. Davila, 
liv. 10. 



THE DOUBLE ASSASSINATION. 437 



His religion was hypocrisy, his prudence was craft, 
his liberality was licentious prodigality, his private 
life was a continuous round of enervating and rove 
pleasure. His death was received by the factions 
and by bigots with exultation, and France at large 
rashly attributed it to a stroke of divine justice. 



438 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTEE XXXI. 

THE WHITE PLUME OF NAVARRE. 

The monk who murdered Henry III. because 
he was not Romanist enough, by his fatal blow 
enthroned a Huguenot. 

When apprized of the assassination, ultramon- 
tane France ran mad with ferocious joy. The Do- 
minicans of the capital chanted a Te Deum* Por- 
traits of Clement were exposed to the veneration of 
the populace. t The statue of the murderer w r as 
placed in the cathedral, with the inscription, " St. 
James Clement, pray for us." % Bonfires blazed; 
rockets shot up to kiss the heavens. The aban- 
doned duchess of Montpensier, in wdiose arms the 
assassin had had his purpose confirmed, traversed 
the Paris streets with dishevelled dress, crying, 
" Good news, my friends, good news ! The tyrant 
is dead ; we shall have no more of Henry Valois."§ 
Pope Sixtus V., in full consistory, pronounced a 
studied panegyric upon Clement, beginning his 
atrocious harangue with a quotation from the 
Psalms: "This is the Lord's doing; and it is mar- 
vellous in our eyes." Then, with frightful blasphe- 
my, this pastor of the faithful declared the cow- 

* Davila, liv. 10. 

f Mem. du Due d'Angoulenie, p. 22. Journal de Henri IV. 
X Hist, des Derniers Troubles, vol. 2, p. 6. 
§ Ibid. Duncan, pp. 255, 256. 



THE WHITE 



PLUME. 



ardly regicidal act comparable, for heroism, to the 
actions of Judith and Eleazar, and for usefulness, 
to the incarnation and resurrection of the Saviour.* 

But while the League was exulting, Navarre, 
aware that boldness is the mother of opinion, and 
that from this springs power, from power victory, 
and thence security, hastened to have himself pro- 
claimed king of France under the title of Henry 
Quatre ; then, leaning with one-hand upon the Swiss 
auxiliaries, and with the other upon the united 
Huguenot and conservative parties, he calmly 
turned to Europe and demanded recognition. 

This, however, was not readily conceded. Most 
of the foreign states were hostile to his claim ; 
France itself was divided : the League, dominant 
in half of the kingdom, cried Yeto to the new mon- 
arch's accession ; many of the royalist cavaliers 
deserted Henry's standard at this critical moment ; 
and the king, with his army thinned by desertion 
to half its original size — forty-two thousand men — 
raised the siege of Paris, divided his squadrons into 
three divisions, and retired into Xormandy.t 

Nor was the League a unit at this crisis. Dis- 
sension, bitter and open, ate out the heart of ac- 
tion. Mayenne himself, chief of the "holy union," 
backed by the formidable house of Guise, aspired 
to the throne. J Mendoza, the Spanish ambassa- 

* Hist, des Derniers Troubles, vol. 2, p. 6. Duncan, pp. 255, 
256. Browning, p. 251. 

f Dayila. Tie de Henri IV. James, Life of Henry Quatre. 
J Duncan, p. 256. Rohan, Mem., liv. 4. 



THE HUGUEXOTS. 



dor, opposed his election in favor of Philip II., who 
also had designs upon the crown; and Sixtus V. 
was urged to espouse the cause of the " most Chris- 
tian king." But the pope did not enter into the 
views of Spain with any cordiality. He foresaw 
that if Philip, who was already too strong for the 
Vatican, should become arbiter of France and mas- 
ter of the Netherlands, he could reduce the pontiff 
to the position of mere head chaplain to the court 
of Madrid. Accordingly Sixtus threw the weight 
of his influence into the scale against Philip, whom 
he all the time cozened into imagining that he was 
assisting. This tortuous policy finally effected the 
election of the old cardinal of Bourbon, whom the 
Huguenots still held in duress, and who received 
the empty honor of the ultramontane allegiance, 
under the sobriquet of Charles X.* In the ab- 
sence of their nominal king, the Council of Sixteen 
ruled Paris, and Mayenne controlled the Romanist 
provinces. t 

In the mean time Henry Quatre, by dint of his 
superior military genius, beat down all opposition, 
and marched from victory to victory. He convened 
a parliament at Tours, where his authority w r as ac- 
knowledged, and where justice was administered in 
his name ;% he overran Normandy ; he gained the 
celebrated battle of Argens, in 1588, and subdued 
a multitude of rebellious towns. 

After exhaustive but abortive diplomatic ruses, 

* Sully, liv. 3. Davila, liv. 2. Matthieu, liv. 1, vol. 2. Brown- 
ing, p. 260. f Ibid. t Mem. de Duplessis-Mornay. 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



succeeded by much military manoeuvring, the army 
of the League, commanded by Mayenne, and the 
Huguenots, led by Henry TV., met, in March, 1590, 
on the famous plain of Ivry.* 

Two writerst who were with the king mention 
that, during a terrific thunder-storm which preceded 
the battle, two armies were descried in the heavens 
fighting furiously. " This," says Davila, c ' discour- 
aged the royal army, who for the most part looked 
on the heavenly display as a presage of defeat, and 
coupled it with the unhappy rout at the fight of 
Dreux, fought on that very spot at the commence- 
ment of the civil wars."^ 

At a time when the aurora borealis was but little 
known, this phantom fight in the clouds could not 
fail of producing consternation. 

The force of the two armies was very unequal : 
the king had eight thousand infantry, and but two 
thousand cavalry. The League mustered twelve 
thousand men-at-arms and four thousand horse- 
men.! 

In the king's camp much time was given by 
both Romanists and Protestants to devotion. The 
churches of the neighboring hamlet of Xanancourt 
were crowded by gentlemen who went to mass ; 
while the Huguenot ministers performed divine 
service with their adherents.il 
• When ail was prepared, Henry advanced to the 

e Maimbourg, Hist, cle la Ligue ; Matthieu ; Pere'fTxe. etc. 
t Sully and Davila. \ Davila, liv. 2. 

§ Matthieu, Hist, des Guerres, etc., p. 29. 
|| Hist, des Demiers Troubles, vol. 2, p. 16. 

19* 



442 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



head of his army, in complete armor, but bare- 
headed, and prayed aloud to the Almighty for his 
favor and protection. When he finished his sup- 
plication, a shout of "Vive le roi" ran through his 
lines. Henry then exhorted his followers to keep 
their ranks, and assured them that he was deter- 
mined to conquer or die with them. " Gentlemen, 3 ' 
cried he, with animated voice and sparkling eye, " if 
the standard fail you, keep my plume in your eyes ; 
you will always find it in the path of honor and 
duty. 5 '* So saying, he put on his helmet adorned 
with three white plumes ; then perceiving that the 
wind blew in the faces of his soldiers, and that in 
consequence the smoke would blind them, he or- 
dered a position to be taken more to the left. Ma- 
yenne, perceiving this manoeuvre, at once sounded 
a charge, and battle was joined, f 

The field was stubbornly and skilfully contested, 
and the victory long hung in doubt. At length Henry 
in person plunged with his reserve upon Mayenne's 
array headlong and resistless ; for a space he was 
swallowed up in the dreadful melee: then came the 
clang of sabres, the fierce shouts of infuriated com- 
batants, the agonized wail of the death-smitten ; 
while above all sounded the hoarse roar of mus- 
ketry and the sullen boom of cannon. The sus- 
pense was awful ; but when the smoke rolled up, 
the army of the League was descried decimated, 
broken, dispersed, scattered in wild rout across the 

* D'Aubigne, Hist. Universelle, vol. 3, p. 231. 
f Maimbourg, Hist, de la Ligue, vol. 2, p. 268. 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



443 



ghastly plain, shouting madly, " Sauve qui pent /' 
while over all loomed the white plume of Navarre, 
and echoed the frenzied cry of, " Victory, victory!" 

"Gentlemen," said the exultant monarch, "you 
have served God well this day ; receive his benedic- 
tion and your king's."* 

In this famous battle six thousand leaguers per- 
ished, among whom were the count of Egmont, who 
commanded the Spaniards, and the duke of Bruns- 
wick, who led the Germans. Sixteen French and 
twenty Swiss colors, eight pieces of cannon, all the 
baggage and ammunition of Mayenne — these were 
the trophies which graced the triumph of the king.t 

Henry lost five hundred killed, and two hundred 
wounded. X 

Mayenne retreated with his battered battalions 
upon the dismayed capital, at the same time dis- 
patching a courier to the duke of Parma, the Span- 
ish governor of the Netherlands, whom he implored 
to hasten to the rescue of the imperilled League. § 

The victory of Ivry gave Henry IV. a prestige 
which consolidated his party and insured his even- 
tual success. Upon this occasion he did not fritter 
away his triumph by misspent hours at the feet of 
a courtesan, as he had his prior victory of Coutras : 
but pressing closely upon Mayenne, he environed 
the discomfited legions of the League, and laid 
close siege to his rebellious capital.!! 

* Cayet, liv. 2. Davila, liv. 2. Yilleroy, vol. 1. 

t Amirault, p. 357. Perenxe, liv. 2. J Ibid. 

§ Yilleroy, vol. 1. Davila, liv. 2. Matthieu. 

|| Jour, de Henri IY. Hist, des Derniers Troubles, v. 2, p. 20. 



444 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



So skilfully did Henry invest Paris, that ere 
long gaunt famine stalked through its streets. The 
hunger of the isolated city was terrible and unpre- 
cedented. The Parisians not only ate human flesh, 
after consuming dogs, cats, leather, every thing 
masticable, but they actually ground the bones of 
human beings and mixed this awful powder with 
chaff and bran, of which, at the papal nuncio's sug- 
gestion, they made bread.* 

Yet though Henry choked them with hunger, 
the leaguers, steeled by desperation and heated by 
the Jesuits, still held out. The king might have 
easily taken Paris by assault, but he was anxious 
to save it from the horrors of pillage ; so he re- 
solved to starve it into submission. t 

Meantime Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, 
was apprized of the desperate condition of the 
League. This celebrated soldier and consummate 
tactician at once set out to relieve Mayenne and 
Nemours. X 

Farnese did indeed compel Henry to raise the 
siege of Paris, but avoiding a battle by a series of 
those cunning military manoeuvres which had gained 
him his reputation, he contented himself with this, 
and soon retired into the Netherlands.! 

Mortified by Farnese's tactics, Henry attempted 
to take Paris by escalade. But the obstinate forti- 
tude of the citizens, led by a regiment of fanatic 

* Hist, de la Sorbonne, vol. 2, p. 45 ; cited in Browning, p. 
2G6. f Perefixe, Mem. de Nevers, vol. 2, p. 601. 

I Ibid. Duncan, p. 273. § Matthieu, Cayet, Sully. 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



445 



monks grotesquely armed above their frocks, foiled 
the assault, and the king retired balked and sulky 
from the city walls.* 

But while these scenes were being enacted, sev- 
eral other important events occurred. Charles X., 
the phantom monarch of the League, died at Fon« 
tenoy, after publicly acknowledging the right of his 
nephew to the throne.* About the same time the 
prince de Joinville, now duke of Guise, who had 
been imprisoned by Henry III. when he seized the 
cardinal of Bourbon, made his escape from duress, 
not without some suspicion of the connivance of 
Henry Quatre, who was accused of desiring to make 
use of the young duke to foment dissension in the 
ranks of the League. £ 

These events were chiefly of consequence be- 
cause they revived with increased earnestness the 
question of the succession, to which the demise of 
pope Sixtus V.j in 1591, and the election, after a 
stormy conclave, of Gregory XIT., a creature of 
the Spanish king, gave added venom. There were 
several rival claimants of the French crown within 
the ranks of the League. Some favored Philip II. ; 
some were for Guise ; others preferred the duke of 
Savoy. § After a rancorous contest, during which 
Henry marched from one success to another almost • 
unopposed, the settlement of the mooted claims 

* Cayet. liv. 2. Davila, liv. 11. 
| Sully. D'Aubigne. 

J Journal de Henry IV. Mainibourg, Hist, de la Ligue, 
§ Perefixe. Duncan, p. 2QL 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



and the election of a king was referred to the states- 
general.* , 

This decision alarmed Henry. The formal nom- 
ination of a monarch by the states-general would 
greatly embarrass him, if it did not ultimately baulk 
him of the throne. His heroism had melted all 
Europe into admiration. Many of the inimical 
nobles did not scruple to declare that, svere it not 
for his heresy, they would serve him and die for 
him. His Huguenot tenets seemed the only obsta- 
cle to the almost undisputed succession. God 
seemed to put before Henry these two alternatives : 
a throne bought with a denial of his truth ; a di- 
vided sceptre accompanied by loyalty to the heav- 
enly King. 

The struggle in Henry's soul was fearful. Am- 
bition imperiously beckoned one way ; religion 
sternly pointed the other. 

At length ambition triumphed ; Henry deter- 
mined to recant. Many things combined to make 
the king desert his mother's God. He had no true 
faith in his soul. His Protestantism w r as not a sav- 
ing grace in the heart ; it was a cold intellectual 
conviction, nothing more. He was a Huguenot 
because Romanism was' so ridiculous: "It is unrea- 
sonable," cried he, "this mummery of the Vatican." 
Devoted to pleasure, nay, to gallantry, what sym- 
pathy could this licentious monarch, who seduced 
young girls, debauched the wives of his highest 
subjects, and kept a dozen mistresses, have with 

* Perefixe. Duncan, p. 264. Browning, p. 268, et seq. 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



U7 



the pure morality, the chastened piety, the holy 
ardor of the children of God ? 

Therefore, since Henry was always a Romanist 
in practice, since his Protestantism was of the head, 
not of the heart, his apostasy was not so difficult, the 
abyss across which he leaped was not so yawning 
as some have painted it. 

Henry had long thought that unless he became 
reconciled to Rome, he would have to pass his life 
in warfare, "a monarch without a kingdom," in his 
phrase.* He had not raised himself to the Chris- 
tian height of daring to trust God. Like Simon 
Peter, he doubted. His favorite mistress, Gabrielle 
d'Estres, constantly urged him to recant and pacify 
the country. When the alarmed Huguenots en- 
treated him not to abandon them, he said, " Ventre 
St. Gris ! Paris is well worth a mass.' ? t 

On the 25th of July, 1593, Henry publicly abjured 
Protestantism at St. Denis, and envoys were instantly 
dispatched to Rome to obtain the papal absolution ; 
but the reluctant pontiff would not publish a decree 
of admission into the bosom of Rome until two years 
later. In 1595 he was absolved from all censure, 
upon certain prescribed conditions, with all of which 
he complied. :£ 

* Browning, p. 287. 

f Caret, iiv. 5. Joxtr. de Henri IV. James, Life of Henry IV. 

% The conditions were as foUows : that the Eornan church 
should be introduced into Beam as the established religion ; that 
four monasteries of friars and nuns should be established there, 
and that the decrees of the Council of Trent should be received 
into France, except in those articles which might injure the inde- 



U8 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



This event broke the back of the League; Ma- 
yenne only held out to obtain better terms ; ere 
long he succumbed. The nobles and the commons 
hastened to swear allegiance to the renegade mon- 
arch,* and ere many months had passed, rebellious 
Paris itself opened its obstinate gates with a shout 
of welcome. t 

But if Henry's abjuration killed the League, it 
also wounded the Huguenots. From the day of 
his mock reconciliation with Rome, Henry treated 
his old friends, Turenne, Duplessis-Mornay, D'Au- 
bign£, and the rest, with shabby neglect. Happily 
Conde was dead, poisoned some years before, so he 
could not be tabooed. The whole reform party was 

pendence of tlie Gallican church ; that within one year the young 
prince of Conde should be delivered into the hands of Romish in- 
structors to be educated by them ; that all lands and goods taken 
from the church should be restored ; that none should be elected 
to the magistracy who were heretics ; that the king should give an 
account of his conversion and abjuration to all Christian princes. 
The spiritual penances imposed were, that on every Sunday and 
holy day he should hear a conventual mass ; that he should hear 
mass every day ; and that on some set days of the week he should 
say certain prayers ; that he should fast on Fridays and Sundays, 
and receive the communion publicly four times a year. Davila, 
liv. 2, p. 675. 

When these terms were accepted by the king's representatives, 
they knelt down at the gate of St. Peter's church, and abjured the 
heresies contained in a written document ; they were then touched 
on the head by the cardinal Santa Seremia, and received absolu- 
tion for their master. The church was opened, and immediately 
resounded with music, while the castle of St. Angelo fired salvos 
of artillery. Cardinal Alessandro de Medici was appointed legate 
to France, to report the papal decision, and to cause it to be pub- 
lished in every church. Duncan, p 332. 

e Perefixe ; Cayet ; D'Aubigne, etc. f Ibid. 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



449 



sad and apprehensive. " In taking the king's abju- 
ration," wrote the wise and good Duplessis-Mor- 
nay to the duke of Bouillon, " it was proposed that 
he should swear to make war upon the Huguenots, 
which he refused to do. This is a great boldness 
to dare to make such a demand when he was barely 
on the threshold of their door."* " I expect," wrote 
he further on, alluding to the embassy to Rome, 
" that Henry will obtain absolution on condition of 
the revocation of his edict against the bull of excom- 
munication ; and for penance, he will be secretly 
enjoined to make war upon the Huguenots. The 
king of Spain will then remain to be satisfied : he 
can marry his daughter to our king, by which the 
two interests will be blended, and then the Philis- 
tines must be sacrificed as a dowry. "t 

. Such is the force of pernicious example, that 
within a few years after the farce at St. Denis, nearly 
every family of distinction in France had returned 
to Rome,J like dogs to their vomit. 

The loss of their protectors rendered the hum- 
bler Huguenots an easy prey to their Jesuitical 
foes, and the slender recompense which they ob- 
tained for their services to Henry Quatre was only 
an added spur to the oppressions of his successors. 

The monarch now lapped himself in the caresses 
of his late opponents ; upon them his favors were 
almost exclusively bestowed.§ But he did not feel 
strong enough to dispense with the support of his 

* Mem. de Duplessis-Mornay, vol. 2, p. 367. f Ibid, 

t Browning, p. 287. § Ibid., p. 288. 



450 THE HUGUENOTS. 

ancient comrades ; so that when a Huguenot synod, 
convened at St. Maixent, sent deputies to petition 
Henry to inform them how their affairs were to be 
conducted, and to entreat him to convoke a general 
assembly of the Protestant church, he answered 
suavely but equivocally that his conversion had 
not changed his affection for them, and promising 
to take their petition into speedy consideration.* 

A\l France now seemed desirous of acquiescing 
honestly in the new regime, all save the Jesuits, 
those pests of modern Europe. These obstinately 
refused to recognize or obey the king, notwith- 
standing his recantation and absolution. Filled 
with hatred, they hissed and spat their venom at 
the throne. They did more ; they openly counsel- 
led regicide. One of these wretches named Com- 
molet preached a sermon, in which he enlarged 
upon the death of Eglon king of Moab ; he applaud- 
ed the assassination of Henry III., and described 
Clement as seated among the angels of heaven. 
Having thus applied the text, he exclaimed, " We 
too require an Ehud ; we must have an Ehud ; be 
he monk, soldier, or shepherd, does not matter ; 
but we need an Ehud ; and this blow is all we want 
to give us a halcyon sky."t 

Similar regicidal doctrines were proclaimed in 
Lyons and at Rouen, indeed wherever the Jesuits 
were influential. These madmen soon heated a 

* Cayet, liv. 5, p. 259. 

f Journal de Henri IV. Plaidoyer de M. Arnauld, in 1594, 
p. 50. 



THE -WHITE PLUME. 



431 



fanatic, Pierre Barriere, an ignorant and supersti- 
tious waterman of Orleans, so that lie resolved to 
attempt the assassination of the king. He asked 
the advice of the grand prior of the Carmelites at 
Lyons, who praised his courage and eulogized his 
piety. A Capuchin, of whom he made a confidant, 
told him decidedly that his enterprise was merito- 
rious. Happily for Henry, the embryo assassin 
held a similar consultation with a Dominican nam- 
ed Serapin Bianchi, who was attached to the royal- 
ist party. He notified the king, through a gentle- 
man of the royal retinue, of the impending danger; 
and eventually, after a variety of adventures, Bar- 
riere was seized- In his ample confession he im- 
plicated all the instigators of the horrid crime in 
contemplation, after which he was tortured to 
death. * 

The connection of the Jesuits with Barriere, 
together with their impolitic resistance to the pacif- 
ication, increased the storm gathering above their 
heads. They had shown themselves so persistently 
and implacably the enemies of the king and of the 
state, that it was resolved to cite them before the 
courts of justice, as a preliminary to their total ex- 
pulsion from France. f 

The University of Paris led the prosecution. t 
A petition was presented to the Parliament, which 
narrated in detail all their crimes from their admis- 



* Journal de Henri IY. Plaidoyer de M. Arnauld, in 159i, p. 
50. Browning, p. 289. f Ibid. Duncan, p. 313. 

t Caret. 



452 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



sion into the kingdom, and urged their banishment; 
" the Jesuits having been the tools of the Spanish 
faction all through the late troubles, aiming at the 
disseverment of the state, conspiring against the 
life of the king, and violating all order, political 
and hierarchical."* 

The cause was pleaded at Paris in July, 1594. 
Antony Arnauld, one of the most famous advocates 
in the jurisprudential history of France, appeared 
for the prosecution. t 

Since, in our day, the Jesuits are as active, as 
ubiquitous, and as malicious as in the epoch of the 
League, it becomes of interest to know what the 
foremost lawyers of mediaeval France thought of 
these dangerous enemies of civilization and of God. 

"Was it not among the Jesuits," exclaimed Ar- 
nauld, after a brilliant exordium, " that the ambas- 
sadors and secret agents of the Spanish king held 
their traitorous meetings ? Was it not among them 
that Loucharcl, Ameline, Cruce-Crome, and other 
murderers, hatched their diabolical conspiracies? 
Was it not among them that, in 1590, it was re- 
solved that nine tenths of the population of Paris 
should starve, rather than the city should be sur- 
rendered to its lawful king? Who was president 
of the Council of Sixteen, but the Jesuit Pigenot, 
the most ferocious tiger in the capital, who was so 
heart-broken at the bad success of the League, that 
he became insane through vexation. 

" Was it not in the Jesuit colleges of Paris and 

% Duncan, p. 314 f Ibid. 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



453 



Lyons, in the month of August, 1593, that the last 
resolution to assassinate the king was formed? 
Does not the deposition of Barriere, executed at 
Melun, prove it ? Was it not the Jesuit Vorade 
who assured the would-be murderer that he could 
not perform a more meritorious act, and to confirm 
him in his purpose, had him confessed and absolved 
by another Jesuit whose name is not known ? Did 
not these impious and execrable assassins employ 
the most holy, the most solemn, the most awful 
mysteries of the Christian religion to confirm the 
wavering resolution of a fanatic to massacre the 
first king in Christendom ? 

"I confess that a righteous indignation trans- 
ports me beyond the bounds of forensic calmness 
when I see that these traitors, murderers, confes- 
sors, and absolvers of regicide walk still among us, 
that they live in France and breathe its air. What 
do I say? Xot only do they live among us, but 
they enter our palaces ; they are countenanced, 
they are caressed, they form cabals, leagues, and 
alliances. 

" The humiliation of these pests in the affair of 
Cardinal Borromeo is quite recent. Their order 
was extinguished, and they were expelled from Italy 
by pope Pius Y. And yet the Jesuits, who have 
attempted to murder the king of France, and who 
daily preach regicide, are not banished from our 
country ! Is the life of a cardinal, then, more pre- 
cious than that of the eldest son of the church ? If 
the tribunal before which I plead does not deliver 



454 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



us from these monsters, they will perpetrate even 
more evil than they have yet accomplished. 

" If the day of conservation is not less delight- 
ful than the day of birth, certainly the day on which 
the Jesuits shall be expelled from France will be 

no less memorable than that on which the Univer- 

■ 

sity of Paris was founded ; and as Charlemagne, 
after having delivered Italy from the Lombards, 
Germany from the Hungarians, passed twice into 
Spain, subdued the Saxons, and founded our uni- 
versity, which during eight hundred years has 
served as a refuge to men of letters banished from 
Italy, and persecuted in Greece, Egypt, and Africa, 
in the same manner Henry Quatre la Grand, hav- 
ing expelled the Spaniards by force of arms, and 
banished the Jesuits by your decree, will restore to 
our university, to the city, to France, the ancient 
splendor, the primitive glory."" 

Louis Dolle, advocate of the curates of Paris, 
followed Arnauld, and he spoke against the Jesuits 
with equal force and eloquence. He said that they 
were not members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, 
either as secular or regular priests ; that they had 
only been received in France in the character of a 
collegiate society, and on the express condition 
that they should plot no mischief, nor undertake 
any thing to the prejudice of the bishops or curates ; 
that, far from observing these conditions, they had 
meddled in politics, assumed to be the censors of 
the clergy, pretending to be universal pastors and 

* Plaidoyer de M. Arnauld, in 1594, p. 30, et seq. 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



455 



guardians of the church ; that by virtue of the priv- 
ileges too prodigally granted them by the pope, 
they had not only exalted themselves above the 
curates, but even above the bishops, and had dis- 
turbed the whole hierarchical discipline. Dolle 
painted in the blackest colors the furious zeal dis- 
played by the Jesuits during the siege of Paris. 
"Dare you deny," cried he, apostrophizing them, 
" dare you deny that when Henry III. was at St. 
Cloud, in 1589, you went daily to the trenches dis- 
tributing money to the soldiers, and exhorting them 
to persist in their rebellion ? Have you not been 
compelled to acknowledge that a priest of your 
company was chief of the Sixteen, and presided at 
the meetings of those villains ?"* 

The relentless advocate next dwelt upon the 
evils caused by the Jesuits through the system of 
confession. " It is not necessary," said he, " to cite 
examples ; there is not a family in France which 
cannot adduce several. I shall content myself with 
noticing one quite recent, and of public notoriety. 
The Jesuits of Fribourg wished to persuade the 
small Romanist cantons to separate themselves 
from the small Protestant cantons, and break their 
union, which is the palladium of Switzerland ; but 
finding the men too firm and wise, they imitated 
the serpent who tempted Eve. They cozened the 
women; urged them to refuse all conjugal privileges 
to their husbands till they had consented to dis- 
solve the alliance. They obeyed these directions ; 

* Cited in Duncan, pp. 319, 320. 



456 



THE HUGUENOTS, 



and the men, having learned from them by whom 
they were seduced, punished the Jesuit seducers as 
they deserved." 

The lawyer also denounced their infamous doc- 
trines, that " to the pure all things are pure," and 
that "the end justifies the means f he then con- 
cluded in these words : 

" We have been told that the Jesuits wished to 
assassinate the king : not only have we evidence of 
the fact, but the traitor has confessed that he coun- 
selled the deed. Can we doubt after this what ought 
to be clone to those who would cut all our throats if 
they had the opportunity? If you do not now ban- 
ish them from the kingdom, you will positively es- 
tablish them. . Our first movements are full of vigor, 
but all efforts, national or individual, slacken w T ith 
the lapse of time ; of this we have too much proof, 
for during the thirty years that this question has 
been agitated, we have slumbered, and have not 
thought of the evil, till we have been made to feel 
its pressure. Behold, now is the appointed time. 
The Jesuits, who know our weak point, wish to pro- 
tract your sentence by delaying the trial ; thus they 
gain time, which in France gains every thing. Those 
for whom I speak know that their sacred calling- 
prevents them from demanding vengeance upon the 
atrocities of this most pernicious society. But, gen- 
tlemen, as in ancient times the augurs of Borne were 
obliged to advise the senate concerning all prodi- 
gies that appeared, that the evils they presaged 
might be averted by expiations, so the plaintiffs, 



THE WHITE PLUME. 



457 



who liave charge of things holy and sacred, as the 
augurs formerly had, apprize you now that there is 
an ominous prodigy in this city and in other towns 
of France ; it is this, that men ivho call themselves 
religious, teach their blind pupils the lawfulness of mur- 
dering kings. Avert then the evils of this prodigy 
by timely and energetic action. "* 

So intense was the feeling excited by these mas- 
terly pleas, that the Jesuits did not venture to re- 
spond, but availing themselves of legal technicali- 
ties, they artfully postponed the sentence^ aware, 
as D0II6 said, that in France to gain time is to 
gain every thing. 

Then they renewed their intrigues, and formed 
new plots to assassinate the king. A miscreant 
named Chat61, who had studied in a Jesuit college, 
was now selected as their instrument of vengeance. 

On the 27th of December, 1594, as Henry was 
surrounded by a cordon of gentlemen who had 
called to congratulate him upon his auspicious 
prospects — he had just returned from Picardy, and 
stood booted and spurred — Chatel stole up stealth- 
ily behind him and aimed a blow at his throat. An 
accidental movement saved him, and the treacher- 
ous knife merely cut his lip. The foiled assassin 
endeavored to escape; but he was seized, and when 
interrogated, confessed that the Jesuits had incited 
him to attempt the murder 4 

* Duncan, pp. 322, 323. 

| Cayet, Mem. de Nevers, D'Aubigne. 

{ Hist, des Derniers Troubles ; Jouvenci, Hist. Soc. Jesu. 

Henry was not much alarmed, even at the very moment of the 

Huguenots. 20 



453 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



The cry of indignation which reverberated over 
France brought down the slumbering avalanche. 
Proceedings against the Jesuits were hastily re- 
sumed in Parliament ; and the same decree which 
condemned Chatel to a frightful death, choked the 
Society of Jesus, and flung it, banished and dishon- 
ored, from the kingdom.* 

This consummation caused wide-spread gratula- 
tion ; the Huguenots especially rejoiced. D'Aubi- 
gne hastened to Paris to felicitate the king. This 
brave soldier and unspotted Christian had express- 
ed himself freely since Henry's abjuration; in the 
sj-noclical conventions of the Protestants he had 
not hesitated to denounce the king's hypocrisy. 
Henry had in consequence been alienated from this 
old, tried friend, whose honest rebukes rankled. 
But he now received D'Aubign6 kindly. On one 
occasion Chatel's attempt upon his life became the 
theme of conversation. " Ah, sire," said the frank 
soldier, "as you have as yet renounced God with 
your lips alone, they only have been pierced; when- 
ever your heart renounces him also, that will receive 
the blow."t 

This was at once a warning and a prophecy. 

blow. "With his usual readiness and wit, he said to the crowd of 
anxious friends who surrounded him, pointing to his wound, "I 
have heard from the lips of others how little the reverend Society 
of Jesus loved me ; n*ow I have learned it from my own." 

* Jouvenci, Hist. Soc. Jesu. Cayct, liv. 6, p. 436. 

f D'Auhigne, Mem., p. 136. 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE EDICT OF NANTES. 

France was now nominally at peace with itself, 
and Henry's only open enemies were the Spaniards 
upon the frontier of Flanders ; yet the condition of 
the country was deplorable. Distress, the exhaus- 
tion consequent upon protracted civil war, the un- 
satiated ambition of many chieftains anxious to re- 
establish the feudal sovereignties of the middle ages, 
the uneasiness of the people at large, habituated to 
the restless vicissitudes of partisan warfare — these 
materially retarded returning prosperity, and sadly 
checked a healthy pacification. 

Henry devoted the larger portion of his time to 
the amelioration of internal affairs ; in many respects 
his statesmanship was wise and judicious, and every 
effort was made to obliterate the scars of war.* 

On the 30th of April, 1598, the Edict of Xantes 
was signed. From its provisions it appears to have 
been modelled upon the old edict of pacification 
ratified at Poitiers. Its essence was, limited toler- 
ation. The Huguenots were permitted the most 
ample liberty of conscience, but they might not 
publicly exercise their religion except in certain 
specified parts of France. They were compelled to 
submit to the external police of the Romish church- 
* Sully, liv. 9. 



460 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



es, by keeping festivals, by paying tithes ; but as 
some compensation, they were declared eligible to 
office ; their poor were admitted into the hospitals ; 
while, for their protection, mixed chambers were to 
be established in all the parliaments.* 

Such, in its scope and purpose, was the famous 
Edict of Nantes. Upon several occasions the Hu- 
guenots had wrung more liberal terms from the 
mailed hands of the League, and from the reluctant 
diplomacy of king Henry III. The only gain now 
was, that the Edict of Nantes was honestly granted ; 
the others had been mere make-shifts, intended to 
tide over a shallow spot — made to be broken. 

Yet comparatively niggardly as were these 
concessions, the papists considered them super- 
liberal ; many of the parliaments refused for some 
time to register the decree ;t while the fanatics 
protested so loudly that their voices echoed to the 
Vatican. Still Henry would not be baulked; when 
the Romanists murmured, he stormed. " The edict 
must be registered," said he to a delegation ap- 
pointed to wait on him and acquaint him with the 
reluctance of the parliament to ratify it ; then he 
added in his pithy, picturesque style, "I have 
climbed the walls, and can easily get over the bar- 
ricades.":); 

As usual, firmness triumphed ; the edict was 

* Browning, p. 312. D'Aubigne'. Hist. Univer., vol. 3, p. 459. 
Soulier, Hist, chi Calvinisrae, p. 323. 

f Journal de Henri IV. Life of Henry IV., by G. P. R. James. 

t D'Aubigne, ut antea. 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 



401 



registered ; indeed a year did not elapse between 
its signature by the king and its ratification by the 
provincial assemblies.* 

The complaisant king next turned to Spain, and 
opened negotiations with his ancient foe, Philip II., 
now grown old and worn. Both monarchs desired 
peace ; and on the 2d of May, 1598, the French 
plenipotentiaries signed an advantageous treaty at 
Vervin, wdiich Henry a little later ratified at Paris.f 

" Thus," says Sully, Henry's Huguenot minister 
of state, w T ith justifiable exultation, " in spite of so 
powerful a league, comprising the pope, the empe- 
ror, the king of Spain, the duke of Savoy, the great 
, French feudatories, and all the ecclesiastics in Chris- 
tendom, our king effected his designs, and crowned 
them with a glorious peace.":}: 

At this time measures were taken to annul Hen- 
ry's marriage with the profligate Margaret, with 
whom he had not lived for many years. Yfhen the 
divorce was obtained, he felt considerable repugn 
nance to contracting any new alliance. In a con- 
versation with Sully, after enumerating the quali- 
ties which he considered essential to a happy mar- 
riage, he said with a sigh, "But I fear no such per- 
son can be found. "§ 

Subsequently, however, he yielded to reasons of 
state, and in 1600 he conferred his hand upon Mary 
de' Medici,!! one of the boldest, haughtiest, and most 



* Sully, liv. 9. f Matthieu, Hist, des Guerres, etc. 

t Sully, Mem., liv. 9, at the end. § Browning, p. 307. 

|| Life of Henry IV., by G. P. K. James. 



462 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



revengeful queens who ever bore the name of that 
unscrupulous and intriguing house. 

The year 1594 witnessed the revocation of the 
decree which banished the Jesuits.* Singularly 
enough, Henry himself was the most strenuous ad- 
vocate of this policy, against the remonstrance of 
the Sorbonne, against the counsel of the politicians, 
against the urgent advice of the sagacious Sully. 
Whether the king wished to conciliate this horde 
of fanatics from dread of their ceaseless intrigues, 
or to convince Europe that he acted upon genuine 
and impartial principles of liberality, is simply mat- 
ter of speculation. Whatever influenced his action, 
it is certain that the " Society of Jesus" never for- # 
gave Henry for decreeing their expulsion, that his 
generosity did not placate their vengeful animosity, 
and that the regicidal blow of Ravaillac, so shortly 
to be dealt, was echoed by a deep Amen from every 
Jesuit heart. 

During the remainder of Henry's reign, the 
affairs of the Huguenots present no event of marked 
importance. Sheltered beneath the Edict of Nantes, 
they pursued the even tenor of their way, held their 
periodical synods, elected their deputies to the pro- 
vincial parliaments, and were a recognized body of 
the state. Henry consulted the sympathies, and 
deferred to the wishes of the Romanist majority/)' 
and in this sadly grieved his ancient adherents; 
but his place in their affections was in some degree 
filled by his sister Catharine of Bourbon, whom 
* Sully, liv. 17. f Browning, p. 317. 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 



4G3 



Sully pronounces " noble and generous."'"" who in- 
herited Jane d'Albr<5t's zealous faith, who adhered 
to the primitive creed with enthusiastic devotion, 
and whose influence in obtaining the edict of toler- 
ation, by her tears, her entreaties, her prayers, was 
fully recognized by her coreligionists. t 

" To vou, madame," wrote Duplessis-Mornay 
from the synod of Montatiban, "we now look for 
our sole illustrious patronage. Continue firm, we 
entreat you, in the true faith ; let not the persua- 
sions of the kins; nor the arts of the Romanists pre- 
vail. Write to us, we beseech you ; give us comfort 
and assurance. 

Catharine at once answered this epistle, assur- 
ing the Huguenots of her unshaken fidelity. " All 
I see, all I feel, but the more confirms me in my 
convictions," she said. "You know well the pain 
my brother's abjuration has given me. But I have 
a strong hope that, when this unsettled state of 
affairs has passed away, he may, through God's 
grace, repair the breach which, for the seeming- 
good of his people, he has now suffered to be made 
in his conscience. Of me personally, believe no 
slanders. If reports say I go to mass, receive my 
denial in a word : I do not, either in act or thought. 
Nor does the king request it; he leaves me free in 
the exercise of my faith; depend on it, I will not 
go to mass till you are pope in very deed."§ 

* Sully, liv. 23. 

f Huguenots in France and America, vol. 1. p. 289. 
t Ibid., p. 282. 

§ Ibid., ut antea. Duplessis 5 influence with the Huguenots 



46 i 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Catharine's influence over Henry was very 
great f and this, coupled with, her lively faith and 
vigilant protection of all menaced privileges, was 
of incalculable advantage to the Huguenots, them- 
selves exiled from familiar access to the throne. 
One of the clauses of the Edict of Nantes forbade 
the exercise of the reformed faith within the corpo- 
rate limits of Paris ; and even Sully, the chief min- 
ister of state, was obliged to repair to Allon, on the 
banks of the Seine, four leagues distant — the near- 
est spot where the primitive worship was held — 
when he listened to the Huguenot preachers.t 

But Catharine, who usually resided at Fontaine- 
bleau, when she visited the king at the Louvre, al- 
ways had divine service performed in her chapel by 
her own chaplain, and to these precious reunions 
all members of the reformed church crowded, with- 
out distinction of rank, for Catharine recognized the 
essential democracy of Christianity. Once the car- 
dinal of Goude waited upon Henry at the head of 
a formal ecclesiastical delegation, to protest against 
this " strange desecration" of the palace. "Gen- 
tlemen," said the king angrily, " I think it more 
strange that such language should be held to me, 
in my own palace, and of my own sister. I am 
king, not you, sir cardinal. Adieu.":j: 

The snubbed delegates withdrew, nor did they 
venture to renew their complaints. 

was so great, that he was called the "pope of the reformed re- 
ligion." 

* Sully, Mem., liv. 9. f Ibid. Browning 5 p. 310. 

t Huguenots in France, etc., vol. 1. 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 



465 



Several attempts were made at this time to 
reconcile the differences between the two hostile 
creeds.^" Discussions were held ; one even took 
place before Catharine ;f but nothing was effected : 
Borne and Geneva could not embrace ; their re- 
spective doctrines differed too radically to kiss each 
other. 

In 1604, the death of Catharine of Bourbon oc- 
curred.^: She had been married to Charles, duke of 
Bar, who loved her with romantic devotion, and 
with whom, despite their opposite religious opin- 
ions, she enjoyed the utmost felicity. Bar made 
numberless kind efforts to detach her from her 
faith, but in vain. One of her last acts was to visit 
Angers, where she received communion with three 
thousand devoted Huguenots. When married, the 
nuptial benediction was pronounced by a Protes- 
tant minister ;§ and constant to the last, she died, 
finding " joy and peace in believing." The fervent 
and uncompromising princess was buried at Yen- 
dome, in the tomb of her ancestors, beside queen 
Margaret and Jane d'Albr^t, a noble trinity of illus- 
trious and beneficent women. 

Henry was deeply afflicted by this event. " All, 
all ; mother and sister !" cried he with anguish. 
How many painful reflections must have thronged 
upon him. They slept together in a common faith ; 
he,- the hope, the pride of both, had deserted their 



* Journal de Henri IV., 1609. 

f Sully, Mem., supplement. 

% D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ., vol. 3. 

20* 



§ Ibid., p. 601. 



466 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Gocl. Bitter regret for a moment wrung his heart; 
and when, among the letters of condolence received 
from every crowned head in Europe, there came 
one from the pope, " expressing his holiness' fears 
for the salvation of the princess who had died out 
of the bosom of the church/' he exclaimed with 
warmth, " I have not that bitter pang added to 
what I now feel; not a doubt with regard to my 
sweet sister's salvation exists in my mind."* 

To divert the king s mind, he was persuaded to 
visit different cities in various portions of the king- 
dom. Wherever he arrived, tedious addresses were 
delivered, of which Le heartily tired. One of these 
municipal orators repeated very often the words, 
" Oh, very benign, very merciful, very great king." 
" Add too," cried Henry, " very weary," Another 
began his speech with, " Agesilaus, king of Lace- 
daemon — " "Ventre St. Gris" interrupted the mon- 
arch impatiently ; " I have heard that people spoke 
often to this Agesilaus, but it was always when he 
had dined ; I have not." To another, who had ad- 
dressed him for some time, and who showed no signs 
of desisting, Henry said, "Pray, reserve the' next to 
another time;" but the orator was not to be cheated 
of the full delivery of his florid prose, and he per- 
sisted in speaking. "Well," said the king, "I am 
going, and you must say the rest to Master Will- 
iam." This was the court fool ; and the orator, not 
liking the audience, concluded his harangue.t 

855 Huguenots in France, etc., vol. 1, p. 306. 
t Ibid., p. 298. 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 



id! 



With few interruptions the Huguenots now en- 
joyed unprecedented repose. At a synod held at 
Gap, in Dauphiny, D'Aubigne was appointed his- 
toriographer to the reformed church, a position 
which his eloquence, learning, and piety enabled 
him to fill with great success, as his strangely vivid 
portraits of his epoch testify.* 

In 1609, it was reported that the Huguenots 
were secretly plotting an insurrection — that this 
was what their unwonted repose really meant. 
This device of the Jesuits to reinaugurate commo- 
tion — for in tranquillity they stifled — cozened Hen- 
ry for a moment. Duplessis-Mornay, the king's old 
Mentor of the day of Coutras, was the reported 
chief of the conspiracy/!' But after much crimina- 
tion and recrimination, the report was proved to be 
a Jesuit bubble, and Duplessis retired to his cha- 
teau of La Forest, in Poitou. There, surrounded 
by true friends, amid the venerable groves of his 
ancestors, he carried his long and useful life far 
into the reign of Louis XIII. Duplessis-Mornay 
died in 1623, after having witnessed all that the 
world has to exhibit of vicissitude in human opin- 
ion.;}; 

The last years of Henry's momentous reign were 
spent partly in licentious intriguej partly in exten- 

* This D'Aubigne is an ancestor of Merle d'Aubigne, the his- 
torian of the Reformation, a worthy descendant of a noble an- 
cestor. 

f Cayet ; De Serres, Hist, de France ; D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. 

X Huguenots, etc., vol. 1, p. 313. 

§ Matthieu ; D'Aubigne ; Mem. de Duplessis, etc. 



468 THE HUGUENOTS. 

sive preparations for some grand expedition whose 
object is shrouded in mystery. Into the chapter of 
gallantry it is not necessary to go. To speculate 
■upon Henry's design in the giant preparations 
which Sully mentions, but cannot explain, is equally 
futile. It is supposed that he had conceived a 
scheme for the consolidation of Europe into a Be- 
publique Chretienne, which should promote the hap- 
piness of man, and insure perpetual peace.* " Bu- 
mor, with her thousand tongues," bruited through 
Europe misty reports of the projected movement. 
The din of preparation resounded from Paris to the 
Pyrenees. 

The execution of the scheme would necessitate 
the lengthened absence of the king from France. 
Mary de' Medici insisted upon the regency ad inte- 
rim. In vain did Sully and even Henry himself 
combat this demand ; the queen would not be put 
off ; indeed she increased her request, and asked to 
be crowned, in order to give additional sacredness 
to her government and person. With much reluc- 
tance Henry made these concessions ; on the 13th 
of May, 1610, nine years after her marriage, the 
grasping Florentine's coronation occurred.t The 
king assisted at the pageant as a private spectator, 
and though fifty-six years of age, inspired general 
admiration by his grace of carriage and charm of 
manner. Throughout his life he possessed a re- 
markable power of captivation ; on this occasion 
his frank, social, and yet dignified demeanor, 
o Sully, Mem., supplement. t Ib id. 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 



469 



caused Mary to turn towards her suite of Italian 
parasites, and say to Leonora Concini, her chief 
confidante, in Tuscan, "Ah, if he were mine alone. 

On the following day, the fatal 14th of May, the 
queen was to make her public, ceremonial entry 
into Paris. The capital was gay with flags, with 
legendary banners, with fleurs-de-lis. Opening with 
a laugh, the day closed with a cry of horror. 

Henry was early astir. His buoyancy at the 
coronation pageant had given way to icy gloom. 
He was haunted by terrible apprehensions. A pre- 
monition of disaster, vivid and awful, chilled his 
blood. The morning he spent in his own apart- 
ments. In the afternoon he rode out with several 
friends, gentlemen of his suite. The curtains of 
the king's carriage were drawn up, not only on ac- 
count of the beauty and warmth of the weather, but 
to enable him to witness the joyous aspect of the 
city, dressed in its gala garb to welcome Mary de' 
Meclici. 

The streets through which they passed were 
narrow; in one of them two carts were met, one 
laden with wine, the other with hay ; the greater 
number of attendants passed beyond the carts to 
give more room to the royal coach, which meantime 
halted ; two footmen only were near, one occupied 
in clearing the road, one stooping to adjust some 
portion of his dress. 

At this moment, while Henry's guards were thus 
scattered, an assassin, who afterwards proved to be 

* Huguenots in France, etc., vol. 1, p. 319. 



470 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



a wretch called Ravaillac, stepping on one spoke of 
the stationary vehicle, leaned forward and struck 
Henry on the left breast with a dagger ; it glanced 
on one of the ribs, and the king cried faintly, "I 
am wounded:*'' determined not to be baffled, the 
resolute miscreant repeated the blow ; this time it 
went to the monarch's heart ; the blood rushed up 
impetuously, and in an instant he was suffocated ; 
he had no time to speak another word.* 

The assassin was at once seized ; and the gen- 
tlemen present, alighting from the blood-smeared 
carriage, caused the curtains to be closely drawn, 
and marched back to the Louvre benumbed with 
horror."t 

In order to avoid a tumult, the king's death was 
concealed ; a cloak was thrown over the yet warm 
body, and a surgeon and restoratives were or- 
dered.;]: 

The queen was in her closet when the news was 
broken to her ; rushing out wild with terror, she 
cried, " Great God, the king is dead !" " Madame," 
responded the chancellor, who was present, " the 
kings of France never die. We must take care that 
our tears do not undo the state ; we have need of 
remedies, not of grief."§ 

" When I heard the fatal news," writes Bassom- 
pierre, afterwards the famous marshal, " I ran to the 

0 Huguenots in France, etc., vol. 1, p. 320. Sully, Journal 
de Henri IV., etc. t Ibid. 

t Ibid. ; D'Aubigne, and others, 

§ Sully ; D'Aubigne ; Journal de Henri IV. ; G. P. E. James, 
Life of Henry IV. 



THE EDICT 



OE NANTES. 



471 



king's closet, and saw him extended on the bed. 
If. de Tie, counsellor of state, was seated upon the 
same couch, and had laid the cross of his order 
upon Henry's mouth. Milan, his head physician, 
was sitting by the bedside weeping bitterly, and a 
corps of surgeons stood near to dress the gaping 
wound. The windows stood open, and once we 
mistook the low sighing of the wind for his yoice ; 
but in a moment the physician said, 'Ah, it is oyer; 
he is gone.' M. Le Grand, as soon as he entered, 
knelt beside the bed, took the king's lifeless hands 
and kissed them. As for me, I threw myself at his 
feet, which I held, embracing again and again, and 
bathing them with my tears. There he lay, still 
and motionless — he who, but a fevr short hours be- 
fore, was the life of every circle. It seemed as if 
all waited for him to break the silence ; not a sound 
was uttered. The children of the king were brought 
into the chamber, but no one else was suffered to 
approach. Eyery measure was taken to deceiye 
the people till the queen's regency was declared, 
lest there should be a popular commotion. About 
nine in the eyenino; a number of nobles rode through 
the streets, and as they passed, cried, 6 Make way 
for the king.' It being dark, the people thought 
Henry was among the horsemen, and shouted back, 
6 Vive le Boi P It was only in the quarter of the 
Louyre that the dismal truth was known. Through 
the night the dreadful farce was continued ; the 
king was dressed and washed with the same cere- 
mony as if he were alive : one gave him a shirt ; an- 



472 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



other lield the serviette, or napkin, and a third stood 
ready with his robe-de-chambre"* 

Thus fell Henry Quatre, and his frightfully sud- 
den transition from life to death is at once a lesson 
and an admonition. His story is strikingly roman- 
tic. He spent more than half a century in active 
collision with turbulent events, and in unremitting 
efforts to direct and mould them to the advantage 
of his country. Sully has pronounced his eulogy : 
" He was candid, sincere, grateful, compassionate, 
generous, wise, penetrating, and loved his subjects 
as a father."t It is a glowing record. But if we 
pursue Henry to the retreats of private life, witness 
his unbridled license, the impure devotion of his 
truant heart to the frail Gabrielles and Henriette 
d'Entragues of his seraglio, and recall his sad apos- 
tasy, caused by mistaken state policy, and his osten- 
tatious Kp-service to virtue and his Aear^-service to 
vice, no pleas of the faithlessness of his wedded 
wife, of apparent statescraft, of the profligacy of 
the age, of the pernicious examples of the Louvre, 
can shield the hero king from the censure of good 
men; no sophistry can avert, no swelling paeans can 
drown the mournful verdict of the sober muse of 
history : 

" He knew the right, and yet the wrong pursued." 

When Henry's assassin was interrogated, it was 
found that his name w T as Francois Eavaillac, and 
that he was a native of Angoumais, of low birth, 

* Bassompierre, vol. 1. Nouv. Mem., p. 222. 
t Sully, Mem., liv. 9. 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 



473 



who had passed through his novitiate in a monas- 
tery, but had never taken the final vows.* Filled 
with wild and superstitious notions, he had listened 
greedily to the laudations of Clement, and the viru- 
lent attacks upon the king daily uttered by the Jes- 
uits drove him to frenzy — he determined to murder 
the king. He was put to the most frightful tortures, 
he suffered the most horrible death, yet he would 
implicate no accomplices in the murder of the mon- 
arch, t 

Still, "the deep damnation of his taking off" 
weighed heavily against the Jesuits, not from his- 
toric proof, for it could not be had, but in a great de- 
gree from the prevalence of certain opinions which 
the society was well known to cherish, and which 
not only led Eavaillac to commit the crime, but 
caused others to envy the wretched notoriety he 
thus acquired, and to avow their readiness to per- 
petrate a similar atrocity. At the time, public feel- 
ing was unequivocally against the Jesuits. Even 
the Romanist clergy, both regular and parochial, 
impugned them in their sermons ; and these accu- 
sations found an echo in lay publications. In the 
courts of law, and at meetings in the market-place, 
the "Society of Jesus" was alike believed to have 
prompted the assassin.^ 

Strange to say, in the investigation of the regi- 
cide, the effort was rather to suppress than to elicit 
the facts. France seemed afraid to know the truth. 



£ James, Life of Henry IV., vol. 3, p. 403. 

f Ibid., p. 404. X Browning, p. 317, et seq. 



47i 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



" It would seem," remarks L'Etoile, the journalist 
of tlie age, "to Lear the matter spoken of, that we 
are afraid of showing ourselves too exact and severe 
in inquiring into this crime, the most wicked and 
barbarous, and the -most important to our state, of 
any perpetrated for a thousand years."* 

Sad as is the misfortune for a nation to produce 
such wretches as Clement and Kavaillac, it is a still 
more serious calamity to have a servile magistracy. 
Sequier was chief president of the Parliament : his 
reply to the queen's inquiry respecting his opinion 
of the question, proves the importance of the real 
criminals,t yet the investigation was smothered. 
" If I am asked who were the demons who inspired 
this damnable murder," says P6r6fixe, archbishop 
of Paris, " history answers that she knows nothing ; 
even the judges who interrogated Kavaillac did not 
dare to open their mouths upon the subject, and 
never spoke of him otherwise than by shrugging 
their shoulders. "J 



° L'Etoile. See also Lettres de N. Pasquier. 
f Journal de Henri IV., February, 1611. 
J Perefixe, Hist, de Henri le Grande. 



RICHELIEU. 



475 



CHAPTEB XXXIII. 

RICHELIEU. 

The murdered king left three children by Mary 
de' Medici. The eldest succeeded to the throne in 
his ninth year, under the title of Louis XIII. The 
younger, the dukes of Orleans and Anjou, were 
infants. On the day following the assassination, 
the Parliament, browbeaten by the duke d'Eper- 
non,* confirmed the queen as regent. France, re- 
membering the regency of Catharine de' Medici, 
beheld with grief and terror the sceptre pass from 
the vigorous grasp of Henry Quatre ostensibly into 
the feeble hands of an infant, really into the grasp- 
ing talons of an Italian interloper, who was herself 
ruled by foreign parasites. t 

While the public salons of the Louvre were 
covered with "the trappings and the suits of woe,'' 
the private apartments of the new-made regent 
resounded with songs of gladness and bursts of 
laughter. 'T was here that the Florentine held her 
giddy court, smiling before the open grave of her 
murdered husband, gay amid her cordon of favor- 
ites who served luxurious viands and emptied spark- 
ling goblets in her honor. 

* Girard. Vie da Due d'Epernon, p. 246. 
t Wyatt, Hist. Kings of France, p. 220. 



476 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



The government of Mary cle' Medici was really 
the government of her confidants, Concini, who rose 
to be Marshal d'Ancre, and his wife Leonora Ga- 
ligni. The pernicious art of this subtle pair coz- 
ened the queen into the adoption of their measures, 
while she believed them to be her own. Under 
their influence, the court was new-modelled. Eper- 
non was slighted, Conde was snubbed, Sully was 
insulted out of office.* 

An inimical contemporary bears witness to the 
quiet deportment of the Huguenots at this crisis : 
" Instructed by experience, they then displayed 
great moderation, and made no pretensions to in- 
novation ; feigning to have no wish to undertake any 
unfriendly action, provided they were permitted to 
live under the untouched edicts."t 

Ere long, however, uneasiness was felt. The 
regent, not satisfied with remodelling the court and 
promoting her lackey favorites to the highest seats 
of honor at the council-board, and to the noblest 
titles of the state, revolutionized the politics of- 
Henry Quatre. His idea was, Germany protected 
from the encroachments of Austria, the insidious 
advances of Spain sternly repulsed. Now efforts 
were made to placate Austria, and an alliance with 
Spain was eagerly sought. Despite the ominous 
growls of discontent provoked by this new policy 
of the queen regent's mushroom council, it was 
pressed ; and with so much success, that the boy- 

* Sully, Mem., last liv. 

f Bernard, Hist, de Louis XIII., p. 12. 



E1CHELIEU. 



477 



isli king was soon married to Anne of Austria, the 
Spanish infanta.* 

The Huguenots read in these events melancholy 
auguries for their cause. Secret conferences were 
held ; chiefs were chosen to maintain their men- 
aced rights. t The Jesuits, in their sermons, openly 
announced the object of the royal marriage to be 
the extermination of heresy 4 Threats soon pass- 
ed into acts. Ancient and well-defined privileges 
were invaded and annulled. Slumbering animosi- 
ties were rekindled. 

The heads of the Huguenot party at this time 
were Rohan, Soubise, La Tremouille, and Bouil- 
lon. Gonde and the count de Soisson had been 
educated as Eomanists, but their turbulent ambi- 
tion impelled them frequently to negotiate with the 
reformers. Duplessis-Mornay, broken by age, rest- 
ed in honorable retirement. D'Aubign6 was still 
an active agent of his coreligionists.§ " Rohan," 
says the Jesuit d'Avrigny, "was a sincere Hugue- 
not, and aimed at the good of his party. Sully was 
not very devout, but felt sore at his exclusion from 
public affairs. Bouillon was politic, using his relig- 
ion to forward his interests."!! 

Bigotry and court cabal kept the country in 
feverish excitement. The crowd of reckless for- 
eigners who surrounded the queen regent fomented 

* Bassompierre. Parcloe, Court of Lords XIV. Bernard. 
Rohan, Mem. t D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. 

t Arcana Gallica, pp. 74, 75. § Mem. Rohan, liv. 1. 

|| D'Avrigny, Mem. Chronologiques, vol. 1, p. 68. 



478 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



discord ; for they saw in it an opportunity to achieve 
wealth and fame. Their efforts were seconded by 
a horde of warlike nobles, w r hose idea of life was 
drawn swords and pointed cannon. Added to all, 
the Jesuits constantly inflamed their penitents 
against the toleration of heresy. Local emeutes 
were of frequent occurrence. These were some- 
times terminated by mutual apologies, sometimes 
by negotiation. 

On the 24th of April, 1617, the regency was 
ended, as it began, with a tragedy. The marshal 
D' An ere was assassinated. This adventurer had 
in reality swayed the sceptre under cover of the 
queen. His insolence and cruelty made him feared 
and hated. The young king especially disliked 
him ; and it was at the instigation of De Luines, 
Louis' favorite, that the former obscure notary of 
Florence, and later gentleman-usher of the Louvre, 
who had clutched a marshal's baton, was slain.* 

Now the king himself assumed to reign ; but his 
rule, like his mother's, was only nominal. De Luines 
succeeded d'Ancre ; a satyr followed a satyr. 

On the fall of her government, Mary de' Medici 
w r as "permitted to retire to Blois,"t the velvet 
phrase in which the court wrapped the iron reality, 
imprisonment. 

Through these troubles at the court, the Hugue- 
nots did their utmost to remain quiet. Synods were 
frequently held, assemblies were often convoked, but 
their discussions were entirely devoted to questions 
* Hist, de la Mere et du Fils, vol. 2, p. 185. f Ibid - 



RICHELIEU. 479 



of divinity and discipline." Ambitious nobles did 
their best to inveigle the reformers into adopting 
their quarrels and avenging their supposititious 
wrongs. Bouillon was active in his endeavors to 
enlist the party in his selfish schemes.! Conde 
also, relying upon his historic name and the tradi- 
tional affection of the Huguenots for his house, 
attempted to win them to support his tortuous con- 
spiracies to aggrandize himself.;j; But except in 
isolated instances, these insidious arts did not suc- 
ceed ; while their peaceful behavior and loyal tone 
gave the anxious court no pretext for persecution. 

At length De Luines, supported by the ready 
clergy, determined to create war. 

The principality of Beam had been for many 
years preponderately Protestant. It was there 
that Margaret de Valois had taught and prayed ; 
it was there that her daughter, J ane d'Albret, had 
lived and labored in God J s service ; it was there 
that Catharine of Bourbon had garnered many 
souls as trophies ; there Henry Quartre had been 
reared : it was the "holy of holies" among French 
provinces. 

Influenced by the reiterated clamors of the 
Bornish clergy, one of whom did not scruple to de- 
clare that " Christians were worse treated in Beam 
than in Mohammedan countries," and that "the 
property of the church was applied to the support 
of its enemies,§ Louis XIII. determined not only to 

* Browning, p. 334. j Ibid., p. 323, et seq, passim. 

J Ibid. § This was the bishop of MaQon. 



480 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



restore the Eomisli religion, but to crown that pious 
work by the annexation of the principality to 
France.^ 

An arret was soon after given to this effect in 
open council; and since the resolute Huguenots, 
unwilling to surrender their ancient privileges with- 
out a struggle, declined to yield, the king assem- 
bled an army, and in 1620 marched to enforce his 
usurpation by the unsheathed sword.f 

The ill-armed and unorganized partisan bands 
of the Huguenots could not impede the triumphal 
advance of the king's mailed cohorts. In October, 
1620, Louis entered Pau, and the Eomisli worship 
was at once celebrated in those cathedrals which 
for sixty years had echoed the purer praises of the 
primitive ritual. 

The abolition of the provincial independence of 
Beam w^as denounced by the whole Huguenot party 
as an infraction of the edict of Nantes. An assem- 
bly was convened at Eochelle. Here the excited 
delegates, regardless of the advice of their most 
judicious leaders, abjured all allegiance to the king, 
and published a decree dividing Protestant France 
into military and civil districts, on the model of the 
United Netherlands.^ The command of one circle 
was given to Soubise, the command of another to 
La Force, while a third was entrusted to the due 

* Bernard, Yie cle Louis XIII., p. 149. 
f Kohan, Mem. D'Aubigne, Mem. 

{ Arc ere, vol. 2, p. 459, et seq. ; Rohan ; Discours sur les Der- 
niers Troubles, p. 101. 



RICHELIEU. 



481 



de Rohan, the most enlightened, virtuous, and tal- 
ented soldier of his age.~ :: ~ 

These bold proceedings instantly precipitated 
active hostilities. The royal army marched into 
Southern France, the old, familiar haunt of the 
twin demons of civil war and bigotry. Montpellier 
was entered. Montauban was besieged ; but it was 
so skilfully defended that De Luines, now constable 
of France, quitted the obstinate walls with a male- 
diction.f 

During this contest, the affairs of the Hugue- 
nots became so extensively diversified that it is 
scarcely possible to give a connected view of the 
events wdiicli occurred among the many divisions 
comprised in their loose-jointed confederation ; for 
the interest is no longer arrested by one body, 
around whose history the episodes of its satellites 
can be successively unfolded ; but events of equal 
importance claim and fix attention in opposite di- 
rections. 

In some respects the struggle was a gallant one ; 
but there was a prevailing readiness on the part of 
many of the Huguenot strong-holds to surrender 
upon the king's approach, in strong contrast to their 
unvarying practice in the preceding civil wars. In- 
deed Rohan observes, "From Saumur to Montau- 
ban there was a general submission, with no resist- 
ance except at St. Jean d'Angely, which my brother 
Soubise defended as long as he could. And the 

* Arcere, vol. % p. 259, et seq. ; Eohan ; Discours sur les Der- 
'niers Troubles, p. 101. f Rohan, Mem., p. 130. 

21 



482 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



peace of Montpellier comprised no chiefs of prov- 
inces except my brother and myself, all the others 
haying made treaties separately, and on advanta- 
geous terms;"* 

At length all parties tired of the war. Louis 
announced his intention to adhere strictly to the 
Edict of Nantes, and the divided and crippled Hu- 
guenots willingly laid down their arms on this as- 
surance, t Amnesty was granted in October, 1622. 
The pacification was signed, and tranquillity once 
more reigned in France. 

Two years later a new regime was inaugurated. 
Richelieu;}; entered the council of state. From the 

* Rohan. Disc ours sur les Deruiers Troubles, p. 101. 
| Bassompierre, Mem. Arc ere', vol. 2. 

% Arrnand Jean Duplessis, cardinal duke of Richelieu, was 
born in Paris on the 5th of September, 1585. Five years after the 
birth of the future statesman, his father, who held several impor- 
tant posts at the court of Henry IV., died, leaving three sons, of 
whom Armand was the youngest, and two daughters, both of whom 
were early married to nobles of the French court. The church and 
the camp were the usual resources in those days of the younger 
sons of noble houses ; and since the bishopric of Lac, on, which the 
family of Plessis could command for one of the sons, was destined 
for Alphonse, the second, Armand was dedicated from infancy to 
the profession of arms. Ere long Alphonse resigned his see, and 
entered a Carthusian community ; whereupon Richelieu quitted 
the camp, and applying himself to the study of theology, assumed 
the mitre of the La§an bishopric. He was a studious and diligent 
scholar, and completed his course with considerable applause. In 
1607 he departed for Rome, to receive from the hands of the pope, 
Paul V. , the consecration of his new dignity. He was asked wheth- 
er he had attained the age required by the canonical law, twenty- 
five years. The embryo prelate replied at once in the affirmative ; 
but immediately after the completion of the ceremony, he requested 
the holy father to receive his confession ; in which, with imper- 



RICHELIEU. 



483 



very outset his soaring intellect, sagacious diplo- 
macy, and consummate tact gave him the leader- 
ship ; and ere long, basing his authority upon these 
qualities, he governed France as absolutely as he 
could had he been born to the royal purple and 
inherited the crown. 

To elevate the regal authority by destroying the 
festering remains of feudal caste ; to raise the im- 
portance of France by humiliating the overbearing 
arrogance of Austria and Spain ; to terminate all 
domestic differences by suppressing the few liber- 
ties still enjoyed by the Huguenots — this was the 
triple policy of the famous statesman;* and he 

turbable composure, lie admitted the falsehood of which he had 
just been guilty. The pontiff absolved him from the sin ; but in 
the course of the same evening, he pointed him out to the French 
ambassador, with the remark that he would one day become a 
clever politician. The prophecy proved true ; and the unscrupu- 
lous use of means which, at the age of twenty-one, he displayed 
in hastening his elevation, affords no bad specimen of the shifts 
to which he resorted through life to maintain his authority. 

On his return to France, he formed a friendship with the ad- 
vocate Boutheiller, who was intimate with Barbin, the confiden- 
tial agent of Mary de' Medici. Through Barbin, Richelieu was 
presented to the all-powerful Concinis, who brought him to the 
notice of the queen regent. His remarkable talents soon won him 
the confidence of Mary, who employed, him in a variety of mis- 
sions, always with success. Upon the downfall of the regency, 
Richelieu went into exile with the queen : but returning with her 
to the court, he soon quitted his old protectress, and gaining the 
notice of the king, rose step by step to a seat in the council of state. 
He received a cardinal's hat in 1622 ; and from the date of his 
admission into the holy conclave, assumed the name and title of 
Cardinal duke of Richelieu. James, Life of Richelieu ; Pardoe, 
Lotus XIY. and his Court, vol. 1, p. 19, et seq. 

* Leclerc, Vie de Richelieu ; James. Life of Richelieu, etc. 



484 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



steadily pursued it through the mazy intrigues 
essential to success. Pretexts of every kind were 
unscrupulously employed to veil these designs. As 
circumstances required, he would vary the apparent 
programme ; but whatever hue the diplomatic cha- 
meleon reflected, the real purpose was unchanged 
and unchangeable. 

Richelieu accomplished his first object by chok- 
ing the emeutes of the turbulent nobility with an 
iron hand. He achieved the second by a system 
of crafty manoeuvres at once protean and astound- 
ing. As a prince of the church of Rome, he nat- 
urally devoted himself to the third ; yet reasons of 
state were his chief motive and guide. There was 
nothing of the fanatic in his constitution. Riche- 
lieu never persecuted merely from the love of it. 
Torquemada was not his model, nor was St. Domi- 
nic a congenial soul. 

In 1626 England, like France, had a vizier : the 
duke of Buckingham, famous for his singular ele- 
vation and untimely end, swaj r ed the councils of the 
British king without a rival. Recently Charles I. 
had espoused a daughter of the house of Bourbon. 
Buckingham was dispatched to receive her. While 
tarrying in Paris, the foppish courtier became en- 
amoured of the queen of France : the daring liber- 
tine even had the audacity to declare his passion ;* 
and undismaj' ed by the frowns of the outraged wife 
of Louis XIII., on the conclusion of his mission, 

* Some historians affirm that the queen encouraged Bucking- 
ham. See Browning, p. 346, note. 



RICHELIEU. 



485 



lie returned to Paris to renew his advances.' 1 ' But 
his dream of illicit happiness was shortly dissi- 
pated by a peremptory command to quit the coun- 
try.f 

Humiliated and enraged, Buckingham reenter- 
ed England, anxious to wipe out this " insult" of 
his expulsion from France, by war. He negotiated 
with the duke of Savoy, Richelieu's enemy. He 
fomented discord in the sister kingdom ; and an 
envoy was dispatched to inveigle Rohan, who — since 
the death of Duplessis and the self exile of D'Au- 
bigne domesticated at Geneva— had been the leader 
of the Huguenots, into arming against the incessant, 
though insidious encroachments of the court upon 
the tolerant decree of Henry Quatre.J 

Meantime a powerful armament was equipped, 
and in the summer of- 1627 Buckingham in person 
appeared off Rochelle.§ After much hesitation, 
and through his instrumentality, the whole Hugue- 
not party armed, really to support the projects of 
the duke of Buckingham, but as they thought, to 
wring from the greedy clutch of Richelieu the sto- 
len and denied clauses of the Edict of XantesJi 

This afforded the wily cardinal a desired oppor- 
tunity ; and acting with his accustomed energy, he 
speedily conjured an army into existence, at the 

* Bohan, Mem. Hist., p. 279. Also Lord Clarendon and Bish- 
op Burnet. + Ibid, 
t Rohan, Mem., p. 212. Violart, vol. 1, p. 683. 
§ Bassompierre, vol. 3, p. 64. 

|| Rohan, Mem., vol. 3, p. 61. Leclerc, vol. 1. p. 332. 



486 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



head of which he in person pressed forward to be- 
siege the Huguenot citadel."* 

Richelieu's skill met and conquered all difficul- 
ties ; and comprehending all the weak points in the 
political situation, as well as in the character of his 
adversaries, with the keen glance of genius, he pre- 
pared to assail both where they were most vulner- 
able. 

He held out to the Eochelloise the prospect of 
renewed religious enfranchisement, and thus de- 
ceived the mayor and the city council, and secured 
a vacillation of purpose which gave him time — the 
desideratum. He dispatched the prince de Cond6 
into Languedoc, to hold the reformers quiet by the 
mailed hand ; and then, piecing out the lion's skin 
with the fox's, he sent Gallaud, an eloquent Hugue- 
not w T hom he had secretly suborned, to persuade 
his coreligionists to remain in tranquillity, f- 

While these crafty measures were being set 
afoot, large garrisons were thrown into all men- 
aced towns ; quantities of ammunition were collect- 
ed ; provisions abounded in his camps ; and fleets 
of boats were floated to convenient points, where 
they were serviceable in the transportation of sup- 
plies in the attack and defence of cities. 

In the mean time the Rochelloise acted pre- 
cisely as Richelieu anticipated — began with a sol- 
emn fast, and instead of admitting their English 
allies at once, hesitated, disputed, and inquired.^ 

* Rohan, Mem., vol 3, p. 61. Leclerc, vol. 1, p. 332. James, 
Life of Richelieu, vol. 1, j). 82, et seq. f Ibid, 

i Mem. de Rohan, lib. 4. 



RICHELIEU. 



487 



The Huguenots of the south followed this per- 
nicious example ; but they were even more besot- 
ted. Some armed under the appeal of Rohan ; 
some positively supported the court ; but the great 
majority remained in hesitating inactivity, complain- 
ing of those who had taken arms before danger had 
grown into adversity. 

Richelieu laid close siege to Rochelle. The de- 
fence was one of the most heroic on record. The 
operations dragged through fifteen months. At 
length famine began to gnaw ; various attempts 
were made by Rohan and by the English to succor 
the succumbing city, but the cunning of the cardi- 
nal foiled these ; and the assassination of Bucking- 
ham on the very eve of a new expedition,- rang the 
death-knell to all hopes of aid. Then craving na- 
ture had her way ; and in October, 1628,f hitherto 
unconquerable Rochelle opened its maiden gates to 
the triumphant legions of Richelieu. So terrible 
had been the suffering endured during the siege, 
that the inhabitants were reduced from twenty- 
seven thousand to five thousand:;: — ghastly proof of 
the heroism of their fight. 

Richelieu completed the humiliation of this 
"city of refuge" by celebrating mass with great 
pomp on the festival of All Saints, which occurred 
shortly after its conquest, and by stripping it of its 
boasted franchises,! a desecration over which the 
Rochelioise shed proud tears. 

* Hume, Hist, of Eng. Reign of Charles L Arc&re, vol. 2. p. 291. 
t Areere, vol. 2, p. 323. Browning, p. 354. % Ibid. ^ Ibicl 



488 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



In other sections the Huguenots, led by the 
gallant De Rohan, achieved success ; but when the 
sad news from Rochelle reached their scattered 
camps, quite disconcerted and heart-broken, they 
desired peace. Rohan convened a Huguenot as- 
sembly at Anduze in 1628. The deputies opened 
negotiations with Richelieu ; and on the 27th of 
June, 1629, a treaty was concluded and signed at 
Alais, which guaranteed liberty of conscience and 
of worship on the essential basis of the often-in- 
fringed Edict of Nantes.* 

No sooner was the civil war terminated, than all 
France resounded with paeans to Richelieu. The 
cardinal-duke was now firmly seated in his vizier- 
ate ; but his time was largely occupied in foiling 
the intrigues of his foes. The court soon became 
the scene of rivalry and cabal ; and Louis, one of 
the most inefficient and timid of monarchs, was so 
harassed by the quarrels of his family, that he ac- 
quired a habit of leaning upon the iron arm of his 
great minister, whom he soon came to consider in- 
dispensable to his happiness and comfort and to the 
government of France. 

Engrossed by these events, the court paid little 
attention to the despised Huguenots. Stripped al- 

* Menard. Histoire de Ximes, vol. 5, p. 586. Kohan, Mem., 
lib. 4. Soon after the signature of this peace, Eohan went abroad, 
and achieved a brilliant fame in foreign sex-rice. He was, by gen- 
eral admission, one of the greatest men and one of the best of his 
age. He never abandoned his religious principles. And when, 
in 1638, he was killed, his body was carried to Geneva, and buried 
with great honor. 



RICHELIEU. 



48 ( J 



ready, by insidious assaults, of their political impor- 
tance, the time was hastening on with giant strides 
when they were to be deprived of the rights of con- 
science. But now for a space they rested in quiet 
security. Protestantism was armed and triumphant 
on the Continent. All Europe knew the resolution 
of Gustavus Adolphus to make common cause with 
all reformers who suffered persecution. France was 
the secret ally of the great Scandinavian ; a posi- 
tion into which Richelieu had drifted through his 
desire to humble the house of Austria. This made 
him cautious not to alienate the continental Prot- 
estants by the oppression of their brothers in France. 
Besides, the Puritan party in England was rising 
into influence ; the entente cordiale between the Pu- 
ritans and the Huguenots had never been disturbed ; 
this too conspired to guard the French Protestants 
from unfriendly legislative action. 

" The government," says Bernard, the jesuitical 
biographer of Louis XIY., " was engrossed by the 
disputes between the king, his mother, and his 
brother, and by the exciting foreign events ; so 
that, deeming this a favorable opportunity for an 
insurrection of the Huguenots, efforts were made 
to hold them tranquil by granting the most reason- 
able of their demands."* 

Emboldened by the liberal temper of the cardi- 
nal, the Huguenots held a synod at Charenton in 
September, 1631 ;t and two ministers, Amivault and 
De Villars, were deputed to present a statement of 

* Bernard, Tie de Lords XIV.. p. 280. f Browning, p. 358. 

21* 



490 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



their grievances to the king, then sojourning at 
Compi^gne. The assembly petitioned for the reac- 
knowledgment of the right of their clergy to preach 
in any Protestant temple, a recent governmental 
decision having forbidden them to abandon their 
individual charges. They also requested a cessa- 
tion of proceedings instituted against some Lan- 
guedocian ministers for inculcating the avowed doc- 
trines of the Reformation, and the liberation of 
some of their friends chained in the galleys for 
their opinions.* 

From this modest list of their demands an idea 
may be formed of the condition of the Huguenots 
at this epoch. 

* Browning, p. 358. 



THE L> R A G O N A D E S . 



CHAPTEE XXXIV. 

THE DRAGOXNADES. 

From the pacification of 1629 until 1661, the 
general history of the Huguenots presents few im- 
portant incidents. There were from time to time 
individual causes of complaint and isolated instan- 
ces of hostility, for the spirit of the League was not 
extinct, and the more zealous partisans of Rome 
were only restrained from urging their favorite 
measures by the imperious genius of the celebrated 
cardinals who successively administered the gov- 
ernment of France, and by the preoccupation of the 
court. Popular prejudice would frequently burst 
forth in an excess of animosity, under the garb of 
religion ; and whenever, through some technicality, 
the protecting clauses of the Edict of Nantes could 
be invaded or infringed, the circumstance was con- 
sidered as a victory over heresy.* 

In December, 1642, Richelieu died ; and five 
months later, consistent even in death, the lackey 
monarch Louis XIII. followed the famous statesman 
to the tomb ; he could not even die till Puchelieu 
showed him how. In the following year, Louis 
XIV., a boy of five, succeeded to the throne. From 
1643 till 1651 the history of France is the history 
of the regency of Anne of Austria and the faction 

° Browning, p. 361. 



492 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



of the Fronde, when the " grand monarch " was 
merely the puppet of the queen mother and her 
minister ; from Louis' majority until the death of 
Mazarin, in 1661, it is the history of that subtle 
and intriguing cardinal. 

Not Richelieu himself had ruled France more 
absolutely than did Mazarin. Like his predeces- 
sor, he was a great secular statesman rather than 
an ardent churchman ; as such he never permitted 
the interests of the Vatican to lure him from the 
path of national policy. He was enabled to main- 
tain this position because France was now strong 
and consolidated. Spain had already commenced 
her descent into the tier of second-rate states ; the 
peace of Westphalia had changed the tactics of 
several of the European cabinets; and the rise of 
the Commonwealth had altered the aspect of French 
diplomacy with England.* 

Mazarin prized Cromwell's alliance ; he was 
aware of the jealous care with which the mighty 
Protector guarded the interests of menaced Prot- 
estantism. The duke of Savoy had ventured to 
persecute the feeble remnant of the primitive Wal- 
denses, who lived obscurely in the Lombard vallies, 
and all Europe saw Cromwell's powerful arm stretch 
across the Channel and across the Alps to snatch 
the Yaudois from the greedy maw of the Savoyard, 
while England's statesman-poet chanted paeans, and 
the fast-anchored island shouted glad Amen.t 

0 Barnet, History of his Own Times, vol. 1, p. 38. 

t Ibid. Life of John Milton, published by Am. Tr. Soc, 1866. 



THE DRAGON A DES. 



493 



Mazarin had no disposition to provoke Crom- 
well's intervention in French affairs ; lie knew the 
chord of sympathy which united the Puritans and 
the Huguenots ; this made him cautious of overtly 
assailing the privileges of the reformed church in 
France.* 

Besides, pretexts were wanting. The Huguenot 
party, after the capture of Rochelle, definitively 
disbanded its political organization ; Henri de Ro- 
han was their last armed chieftain. Weary of Avar, 
and perhaps persuaded that it corresponded not 
with the peaceful tenets of their creed, they sought 
in seclusion the simple liberty of praising God. 
What the sword had been unable to effect, they 
thought that civilization and open Bibles would 
accomplish. 

Of their loyalty and quietude at this epoch, hos- 
tile writers bear ready and ample witness. "I have 
no complaint to make of the little flock," said Ma- 
zarin ; " if they graze on noxious herbs, at least 
they do not stray, "t 

Through the emeutes of the Fronde, they fur- 
nished devoted soldiers to the menaced govern- 
ment. Mazarin recognized their important ser- 
vices ; he never spoke of the pastors of Montauban 
without calling them his " good friends and Count 
d'Harcourt said to the deputies of that city, " The 
crown was tottering on the king's head, but you 
have steadied it."} 

33 James, Life of Mazarin. 

f Felice, Hist, of Prot, of France, vol. 1, p. 341. % Ibid. 



494 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Louis XIV. expressed his gratitude more than 
once. In a declaration published in May, 1652, he 
said, " Forasmuch as our subjects of the pretended 
reformed religion have given us reiterated proofs 
of their affection and fidelity, with which we are 
well pleased, be it hereby known, that for these 
causes they be maintained and secured, and we do 
now maintain and secure them, in the full and en- 
tire enjoyment of the Edict of Nantes."* 

This is the monarch who soon after inflicted 
long, odious, and Satanic persecutions upon these 
faithful subjects who had " steadied the crown upon 
his brow." 

In comparative repose the years of Mazarin's 
vizierate passed away. The Huguenots, industri- 
ous, intelligent, and docile, were the pattern sub- 
jects in the kingdom. t 

But in 1661 the death of the great cardinal oc- 
curred, and at once ebbing persecution began to 
rise towards its flood-tide. 

Louis XIV. assumed the direction of affairs. 
In the heyday of his youth, the royal libertine, 
trampling with equal readiness upon the laws of 
God and man, was comparatively careless in relig- 
ious matters. This circumstance, together with the 
fierce dispute between the Jesuit and the Jansenist 
parties, which menaced Rome with another schism,']: 
restrained for a space the reactive tendency. But 

* Soulier, Hist, clu Calvinisme, p. 552. 
f Acere, vol. 2, p. 345. 
• t Duclos, Mem. de Louis XIV., vol. 1, p. 102. 



THE DKAGONADES. 



495 



with the subjugation of Port Royal, the relapse 
occurred. At the outset the assault was insidious. 
Every five years the secular clergy held ecclesias- 
tical assemblies, and these never adjourned without 
tearing away some new shred from the laws of tol- 
eration.* 

Money in immense sums was supplied from the 
exchequer of the state to suborne heresy. f The 
king judged men in general by the conduct of those 
who breathed the atmosphere of his court. As he 
beheld continual sacrifices of honor and principle 
in the halls of the Louvre, souls bartered for gold 
or titles, he came to think that the Huguenots held 
out to obtain good terms ; he thought that they 
could be seduced by rendering their interests sub- 
servient to their abjuration. • 

Among the nobles the eloquence of corruption 
made many proselytes ; men of high birth were 
dazzled by the proffer of honors and rank. But to 
the lasting honor of the middle and lower classes, 
let it be recorded that they could not be bribed by 
such inducements to shut their Bibles and deny 
their God. The peaceable manufacturers, the 
tradesmen, the cunning artificers, continued stead- 
fast in the faith 4 

Every device which wit could suggest to enforce 
proselytism was eagerly adopted ; favors of every 
kind were lavished upon those whom fear or ava- 
rice had converted to Romanism ; they were ex- 

© Felice, Hist. Protestants, etc., vol. 1, p. 342. 

■f Soulier, Hist, du Calvinisme. J Ibid. 



496 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



empted from taxation, from guardianship, from local 
contributions ; were excused tlie payment of their 
debts, delivered from the coercion of parental au- 
thority, and advanced in the several professions to 
which they devoted their talents.* 

Far different was the fate of those who clung to 
their persecuted creed for conscience' sake. They 
were constantly made the victims of new hardships 
and indignities ; their colleges w r ere closed ; their 
youth barred out from every avenue of profit and 
honor ; their churches were interdicted ; their in- 
heritances were wrested from them through techni- 
calities ; and their dead were not permitted to rest 
in their ancestral sepulchres.f 

The infinite hard fights which God's suffering 
children now waged with self-interest, with abound- 
ing temptation, satanically devised and spread 
about them, may not be recorded. But fast an- 
chored, through all vicissitudes they clung to the 
heavenly throne ; they refused to dwell in Sodom, 
and they would not tarry in Gomorrah. 

The reformers now had implacable and tireless 
enemies in the men who swayed the councils of the 
state. In the foremost rank figured the Jesuits, 
created expressly to extirpate heresy, the born foes 
of the Huguenots, monks doubly formidable as the 
confessors of kings, and because their system of 
morality authorized the use of any means. False- 
hood, trickery, injustice, traffic in consciences, 

* Pardoe, Louis XIV. , and the Court of France, vol. 2, p. 339. 
f Ibid. Anquetil, Hist, de France. 



THE DEAGONADES. 



497 



brute force, spoliation, banishment, nay, even mur- 
der — all were good in their eyes, if they tended to 
accomplish their end.* 

Under the direction of the Jesuits, the govern- 
ment marched steadily from one tyranny to another. 
Ere long the judiciary system was tampered with. 
In rare instances the courts of law had given im- 
partial decisions. By a legal trick this hope of 
justice was destroyed. t 

In despair, many of the Huguenots began to 
emigrate : England, Germany, the Hague, all stretch- 
ed forth welcoming hands. 

But soon the exodus was stopped ; a decree, 
issued in 1669, forbade emigration. The Hugue- 
nots not only might not enjoy in France the equal 
protection of the laws, they could not hope to find 
an asylum abroad.; 1 : Edict followed edict in rapid 
succession : a peculiar dress was prescribed for the 
Protestants ; they were shut out from many species 
of employment other than political ; and the penal- 
ties which awaited an unsuccessful effort to escape 
proceeded in an awful gradation from fine to im- 
prisonment, and from the galleys to death. § 

Yet still the Huguenots persisted in their wor- 
ship and clung to their creed. The king, now be- 
come the complete slave, in civil matters, of his 
mistress, Madame de Maintenon, herself a rene- 
gade Protestant,!! and the tool of the Jesuits in 



* Felice, vol. 1, p. 342. f Benoit, vol. 3, p. 453. 

X Ibid. § Browning, p. 3G5. 

|] Ibid. Pardoe, Louis XIV., etc. 



498 THE HUGUENOTS. 

religion, dissatisfied with the slow progress made 
in the subornation of heresy, determined to force 
conversion. Booted missionaries were dispatched 
into the Huguenot provinces to harry the reform- 
ers into adherence to Rome. 

The dragonades commenced. 

The persecution which raged for several years 
subsequent to 1681, surpassed in cold-blooded ma- 
lignity that of the sixteenth century; for the undis- 
guised hostility of the last kings of the house of 
Valois, although barbarous, was frank; their object 
was avowed ; the Huguenots themselves were mili- 
tant, and the conflict w T as undisguised. But now 
all pretext had ceased ; the Jesuits were crafty ; 
insidious enactments rendered it almost impossible 
to avoid contravention ; and liberty of worship was 
destroyed even while the Edict of Nantes remained 
the formal law,* so powerless are naked statutes. - 

The Jesuit La Chaise was the king's confessor. 
Like Milton's Belial, this monk 

" Seemed 

For dignity composed and high exploit ; 
But all was false and hollow, though his tongue 
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 
Maturest counsels ; for his thoughts were low, 
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
Timorous and slothful, "f 

La Chaise reminded Louis that the Eoman year of 
jubilee occurred in 1676, and he urged the monarch 
to signalize his piety by extirpating heresy, since 

8 Browning, p. 370. f Paradise Lost, book 2, p. 30. 



THE 



DRAGONADES. 



the days of pilgrimages were gone, and lie could no 
longer acquire fame by heading a crusade, or by 
travelling on foot with staff and scrip to the Holy 
Land. " Sire," said he, " a new Christian hero is 
to arise ; perhaps he may find another Tasso to 
immortalize his name ;" and the royal voluptuary, 
bloated with license, gouty with excess, quitted the 
side of his mistress for a moment to beg his ghostly 
confessor to inform him how he might acquire the 
reputation of a Christian hero. 

La Chaise, Louvois the king's minister, and 
Madame de Maintenon, a congenial trinity, united 
their efforts to exterminate the Huguenots. 

A brutal soldiery were quartered on the " here- 
tics ;' 5 devastation, pillage, torture— there was noth- 
ing that they recoiled at ; indeed they gave such 
loose rein to their passions, that their frightful ex- 
cesses would have shamed a horde of brigands.* 

Benoit has filled many pages of his Histoire de 
VEdit de Nantes with hideous details of these atroc- 
ities. "The soldiers," he says, " tied crucifixes to 
the end of their carbines, and these they compelled 
the Huguenots to kiss ; if any offered resistance, 
they thrust the crucifix in the face or stomach of 
the victim. Neither children nor persons of ad- 
vanced age were spared ; they fell on all without 
compassion: some were cudgelled to death; some 
were beaten to a jelly with the fiat side of a sword; 
others were stabbed with the bayonet-crucifix fixed 

* Narrative of the Sufferings of a French Protestant Family, 
by John Migault. London, 1824, p. 182, et seq. 



501 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



at the end of their carbines. These wretches in- 
flicted similar cruelties on women. They whipped 
them ; struck them with rattans across the face to 
disfigure them ; dragged them by the hair of the 
head through mire and over stones. Sometimes, 
finding the laborers at their ploughs, the soldiers 
hurried them off to the Romish church, pricking 
them along like bullocks with their own goads to 
quicken their reluctant pace."* 

Behind the dragonaders were a legion of friars, 
Capuchins, Franciscans, Carmelites, an ignorant 
and restless soldiery, who worked on the fanati- 
cism of the mob, and marched, whenever an oppor- 
tunity occurred, to make an assault upon heresy. 

Emigration, which had been interdicted by the 
edict of 1669, now began again on a still vaster 
scale, and thousands of families quitted France. 
The Protestant countries, England, Switzerland, 
Holland, and Denmark, offered them a shelter in 
official declarations.! But the ordinances prohib- 
iting emigration were reenacted with increased 
severitv. 

The law against emigration, and that against 
relapsed heretics, put a two-edged sword in the 
hands of the persecutors. The condition of the 

* Hist, de l'Edit de Nantes, tome 4, pp. 479, 480. Those who 
desire to know the situation of the Huguenots in detail at this 
epoch, should consult this work. The author has filled five quarto 
volumes with his narrative of the hideous cruelties inflicted on his 
coreligionists, from the reign of Henry IV. to the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes. 

f Felice, vol. 2, p. 45. 



THE DBAGONADES. 



501 



Huguenots was pitiable. In France they would 
not recognize them as any thing but Romanists ; 
on reaching the frontiers they were seized as here- 
tics. Rulhi^res, the panegyrist of Louis XIV., 
says that the misfortunes of the Reformed were 
chiefly owing to the combined operation of these 
two laws, which formed the boast of Father La 
Chaise as masterpieces of genius.* 

Such were the means employed by Louis XIV. 
to convert France to Latin orthodoxy. " Concern- 
ing this monarch," says Macauley, " the world 
seems at last to have formed a correct judgment. 
He was not a great general ; he was not a great 
statesman; but he was in one sense a great king. 
Never was there so consummate a master of what 
James I. called kingcraft — of all those arts which 
most advantageously display the merits of a prince, 
and most completely hide his defects. Though his 
internal administration was bad ; though the mili- 
tary triumphs which gave splendor to the early part 
of his reign were not achieved by himself ; though 
his later years were crowded with defeats and hu- 
miliations; though he was so ignorant that he 
scarcely understood the Latin of his mass-book ; 
though he fell under the control of a cunning Jesuit 
and of a still more cunning old woman, he succeed- 
ed in passing himself off upon the people as a being 
above humanity. 

" Death and time have exposed the deception. 
The body of the ( grand monarch' has been meas- 
* Rulhieres, Eclaircissements Historiques, vol. 1. 



502 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



■ured more justly than it was measured by the cour- 
tiers who were afraid to look above his shoetie. 
His public character has been scrutinized by men 
free from the hopes and fears of Boileau and Mo- 
liere. In the grave, the most majestic of princes is 
only five feet eight. In history the hero and poli- 
tician dwindles into a vain and feeble tyrant, the 
slave of priests and women, little in war, little in 
government, little in every thing but the art of sim- 
ulating greatness."* 



* Macau] ey, Essays, Louis XIV. 



REVOCATION OF THE EDICT. 503 



CHAPTEE XXXV. 

REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 

Until the year 1685, the efforts of the booted 
missionaries were confined to one or two provinces ; 
but now they were extended into other sections. 
Beam was harried ; Languedoc was bled ; the 
Yivarias was changed into a Golgotha. The most 
sinister acts of the dark ages are white when 
set against the blackness of this modern infamy. 
France, to borrow the striking language of the 
Hebrew poet, was " a land of darkness, as dark- 
ness itself, and where the light was as darkness." 

Every engine which a satanic wit could invent 
was put in motion to cajole, to overawe, and to tor- 
ture steadfast martyrs into a denial of their faith. 
Pellisson, the administrator of the corruption fund, 
regularly handed the king lists of six, eight, ten 
hundred converts, vouched for by fraudulent certif- 
icates ; and his miracles were daily chronicled in 
the Gazette. He avoided publishing that the few 
proselytes he did make were exclusively from the 
dregs of the people ; either knaves who periodically 
made a trade of their consciences, or starving beg- 
gars who took the money to get a piece of bread.'' 
Venial and licentious scribblers lauded the triumph. 
The court at Versailles, dripping with wine, drunk- 
* Felice, vol. 2, p. 33. 



504 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



en with, blasphemy, bloated with gluttony, and reel- 
ing in obscene dances, paused a moment in its fright- 
ful orgy, to cross itself and hiccough a viva. The 
king was astonished at the number of his " con- 
verts;" the prelates applauded ; Bossuet harangued, 
and Boileau dogmatized ; wdiile the Jesuits stood 
by with a cunning leer. But reasonable people did 
not credit Pellisson's Munchausenisms. Even Ma- 
dame de Maintenon wrote, " I think that all these 
conversions are not sincere ; but at least the chil- 
dren will be Bomanists."* 

The jubilant court was soon undeceived. Six- 
teen Huguenot deputies from Languedoc, Corennes, 
Vivarias, and Dauphiny assembled at Toulouse, and 
decided to recommence worship in all interdicted 
places simultaneously, without ostentation, but with- 
out secrecy ; either with open doors, or on the ru- 
ins of their demolished temples. At the same time 
union, repentance, prayer, and faith, " mighty to 
the pulling down of strong-holds," were recom- 
mended, t 

In hundreds of thousands the Huguenots assem- 
bled. " The roses and the myrtles of devotion 
bloomed unchilled on the verge of the avalanche." 

The king was enraged ; the satyrs of the court 
sputtered vengeance; the Jesuits spat fresh venom. 
"It was believed," says the abb6 Soulier, "that the 
Calvinists, being reduced to have few public exer- 
cises, would more willingly listen to the instructions 
which the prelates gave in their dioceses to draw 
* Letter to the Countess de St. Geran. f Felice, vol. 2, p. 49. 



REVOCATION OF THE EDICT. 



505 



thera from error ; and that the money which the 
king distributed to assist the new converts would 
induce the religionists to enter almost voluntarily 
into the bosom of the church : but as these meas- 
ures had not all the effect which was anticipated, 
and as it appeared, on the contrary, that the Calvin- 
ists, far from listening to the missionaries, became 
more obstinate, his majesty deemed it necessary to 
use stronger measures to draw them from that leth- 
argy into which their birth had unfortunately thrown 
them. The king's troops were employed to coop- 
erate with the missionaries, that thus what had 
been effected in Poitiers, where forty thousand of 
the Huguenots had been subjugated, might be done 
in the other infected provinces."* 

As to the means employed, the testimony of an- 
other papist, Eulhiere, may be cited : " "Whatever 
can be imagined of military licentiousness was ex- 
ercised against the Calvinists. It is attributed to 
Foucault, intendant of Beam, that he improved 
upon the most exquisite refinements of torture. In- 
vention was employed to discover torments which 
should be painful without being mortal, and cause 
the unhappy victims to undergo the utmost which 
the human body can sustain without expiring."t 

Thus tabooed in society, outlawed from trade, 
and battered and racked by the dragoons, the Hu- 
guenots had nothing to do but die or recant. The 
firmest suffered martyrdom ; those whose spirit was 

* Soulier, Hist, du Calvinisme, pp. 598, 599. 
f Eulhiere, vol. 1, p. 291. 



506 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



willing, but whose flesli was w r eak, pretended to 
abjure. 

"That which struck men in general more than 
any thing else, was the material injury inflicted by 
the dragonades. The spiritual mischief of a forced 
participation in the sacrament weighed much more 
heavily with men of reflection and piety. To open 
the mouth of a heretic with the point of the bayo- 
net, and thrust into it the host — that consecrated 
host which the Roman church professes to esteem 
it a most heinous offence to take unworthily — this 
offence w r as prescribed by those very men who 
decided that it was a crime of the most flagrant 
nature. The Spanish Inquisition had at least 
sufficient sense of shame to prevent its prisoners 
from receiving the communion and attending mass. 
There were a few noble protestations against it in 
the age of Louis XIV., especially from the abbey of 
Port Royal and among the Jansenists ; but the ma- 
jority of the clergy, hurried on by the Jesuits, forced 
their unhappy converts to receive the host wdiile 
their very paleness and shuddering horror, as Bas- 
nage tells us, showed how their whole heart revolt- 
ed at the ceremony."* 

But the dragonaders did not care for sincerity ; 
they looked only for the eclat of an immense army 
of proselytes. 

The king's council, whipk only regarded outward 
acts, was as much astonished as delighted at the 
countless abjurations. " Sixty thousand conver- 

* Felice, vol. 2, p. GO. 



EE VOCATION OF THE EDICT. 



507 



sions have been made in the generality of Bor- 
deaux," wrote Louvois to his father the chancellor, 
early in September, 1685 ; " twenty thousand have 
been won in Montauban. The rapidity with which 
it all takes place is such, that by the end of the 
month there will not be ten thousand of the here- 
tics alive wdiere thirty days back there were a hun- 
dred and fifty thousand."* 

The duke de Noailles announced to Louvois at 
the same time multitudes of forced conversions at 
Nimes, Uzes, Alais, Villeneuvre. " The rack is a 
famous proselyter," said he with a jeer. " The 
leading people of Nimes," he continues, " made their 
abjuration in the church on the day of my arrival. 
There was then a chill ; but things were put in a 
good train by quartering the military on the obsti- 
nate. The number of heretics in this province is 
about two hundred and forty thousand. I expect 
soon that I shall see all these hounds leashed to 
the car of Eome."t. 

The hour was now considered ripe for the abo- 
lition of the nominal law of toleration. Frittered 
away as the statute had been until it was little 
more than the shadow of a law, it was still an 
accusing phantom in the statute book ; and the 
government now undertook to lay this ghost : un- 
fortunately the perturbed spirit of reform would 
not "down" at the king's bidding. 

Louis XIV., overreached and persuaded by his 
confessor, his chancellor, his minister of war, and 
* Felice, vol. 2, p. 60. f Ibid., p. CI. 



508 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



his mistress, ill-informed perhaps as to the real 
condition of the kingdom, rejoicing over fictitious 
conversions, and duped because he lived surrounded 
by flatterers, like an Asiatic sultan in the recesses 
of his palace — Louis XIV, to whom Louvois and 
La Chaise had promised that " not a drop of blood 
should be shed,"" having consulted Harlai and Bos- 
suet, signed the Kevocation of the Edict of Nantes 
on the 18th of October, 1685,t and enshrined his 
name for ever as a monument of execration. It 
was at this time that he added to his other mottoes 
that of Lex una sub ano.% There was no need to 
write it in blood at Versailles ; the hand of death 
had already engraved it on the frontlet of the mon- 
archy. God left this king, broken by age, soured 
by disappointment, humiliated, his early glories 
turned to ashes on his shrivelled lips, to occupy 
the throne for thirty disgraceful years after this 
unhappy event, to bear the load of the crime he 
had committed. 

The preamble of the Act of Revocation contains 
a brazen falsehood ; what then can be expected of 
the body of a paper which opens with a lie ? " We 
behold now," says the king, "with just gratitude to 
God, that our cares have attained the end which we 
proposed ; the greater and better part of our sub- 
jects of the pretended reformed religion have em- 
braced the Roman faith, and the execution of the 



* (Euvres Completes de Louis de St. Lucien, vol. 2, p. 53. 
f Felice, Browning, Kulhiere, Soubier, Noailles, and others. 
% Louis XIV., et son Siecle. 



REVOCATION OF THE EDICT. 



509 



Edict of Nantes is therefore unnecessary." This is 
an abstract of the act : All further exercise of the 
reformed worship in the kingdom illegal. The Hu- 
guenot pastors ordered to quit the realm within a 
fortnight ; and meantime to perform no clerical 
function, on pain of being sent to the galleys. A 
promise to all ministers who should become con- 
verts, of a stipend greater by one third than that 
which they had hitherto enjoyed, with the reversion 
of a moiety to their widows. A dispensation from 
academical studies to those which wished to prac- 
tice at the bar. Parents forbidden to instruct their 
children in the reformed religion, and commanded 
to have them christened in the Romish churches, on 
pain of five hundred livres fine. All refugees or- 
dered to return to France within four months, or 
forfeit their property. Ail religionists forbidden to 
emigrate, under penalty of the galleys if men, or 
seclusion for life if women. And all laws against 
relapsed heretics confirmed.* 

Such were the main enactments of this atrocious 
act. "It gave," says M. Felice, "a fatal blow to 
the traditional policy of France — to the policy of 
Henry IV., Richelieu, Mazarin, and even to that 
of Louis XIV. himself. It was no longer possible 
to retain the natural allies of France in Protestant 
Europe, when Christendom resounded with the lam- 
entations of the Huguenots. Protestantism rose en 
masse against the " grand monarch." Its chief was 
"William of Orange, and the parliamentary resolu- 
* Felice, vol. 2, p. 02. 



510 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tion of 1688 was the response to the royal crime of 
1685."* 

Meantime the act was put in force. " We have 
reached the end/'t said the old chancellor Letel- 
lier as he affixed the seal of state to the nascent 
edict, and chanted the Nunc dimittis of the holy 
Simeon with blasphemous triumph. Letellier, of 
whom the count de Grammont once said, on seeing 
him emerge from the king's closet, "I picture to 
myself a polecat who has just killed some fowls, and 
is licking his jaws, yet stained with their blood "% — 
Letellier was mistaken ; for the sequel proved this : 
that it is easier to make martyrs than apostates, and 
that the power of conviction is stronger than ma- 
terial forces, 

The Act of Revocation was carried out with 
special rigor against the pastors ; even the letter of 
the edict was exceeded : that granted them a fort- 
night's delay ; but Claude,§ the famous pastor of 
the Parisian Huguenots, whose learning and acu- 
men had worsted the brilliant Bossuet, received 
orders to quit the capital within twenty-four hours 
after the signature of the paper ; and this seditious 
fellow, as Madame de Maintenon termed him 5 !| was 

* Felice, vol. 2, p. 63. 

f Burnet, vol. 1, p. 402. Benoit, vol. 4. 

% Vallaire La Beaumelle ; also cited by Browning, p. 381 . 

§ Jean Claude was born at La Sabretat, in Kouerque, in 1619. 

|| Letter to the countess de St. Grau, dated 25th October, 1685. 
He was a man of piety, a learned theologian, a skilful orator, a 
wise and moderate writer, endowed with judgment and a readi- 
ness of mind which never deserted him. He was singularly well 
qualified to withstand the champions of the Roman church ; and 



REVOCATION OF THE EDICT. 



511 



accompanied by one of the king's footmen, who did 
not lose sight of him for a moment till he crossed 
the frontier. The other preachers of the larger 
towns were given two days in which to prepare for 
departure. Those living in the provinces had a 

while his genius did not equal that of Bossuet, with whom he con- 
tended publicly, he was that great orator's superior in the solidity 
of his learning and the force of his argumentation. Felice. toI. 
2, p. 9. 

Pierre Dubose was another celebrated pastor of the Huguenots. 
He was born at Bayeux. in 1623. and was esteemed one of the 
greatest preachers in the reformed church of his century. t; It 
may be said of Mm without flattery.'' says his contemporary Eli 
Benoit, "that he possessed all the qualifications of a Christian 
orator. His mind was enlightened by an acquaintance with belles- 
lettres. He was a good philosopher, a sound theologian, and a 
judicious critic. His figure was good, his voice at once sweet and 
powerful, and his action well regulated. The church at Charen- 
ton, in 1658. sent him the most urgent inTitation to come to Paris. 
Marshal Turenne. the marquis de la Force,, and other persons of 
rank added their solicitations ; but Dubose refused to leave his 
charge at Caen, because he held that a pastor cannot with a good 
conscience leave his rloek without first obtaining their express con- 
sent. When this mvitation was repeated in 1670. the archbishop 
of Paris went thrice in the week to beg the king not to confirm the 
appointment. TTas it that he thought the eloquence of Bourda- 
loue and Bossuet inadequate to the task of maintaining the Eoinaii- 
ist cause against his assault ? Let an anecdote answer. Dubose, 
who was often sent by the oppressed churches to plead their cause, 
was commissioned in 1688 to ask the king to enforce the Edict of 
Xantes. When Dubose began to speak. Louis appeared listless ; 
but graduaUy he began to listen, and at last gave evident marks 
of great attention. The bearing, the voice, the serious and natural 
manner, the eloquent words of the orator completely triumphed 
oyer the repugnance which he had been taught to feel towards the 
heretical ministers. " Madame, " said he to the queen, who stood 
by. "I have just heard the best speaker in my kingdom."' Then 
turning to the courtiers, he added. -I certainly never heard any 
one speak so well." Benoit, Hist, de FEdit de Xantes. 



512 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



little longer space ; but in open defiance of all the 
rights of nature, they were all deprived of those of 
their children who were more than seven years old. 
Some were even forced to abandon infants at the 
breast, and others supported broken-hearted wives 
who accompanied them on the road to banishment. 

Abjurations had been counted on ; few were 
made. Nearly all those preachers who, in a mo- 
ment of stupefaction and terror, had denied their 
faith, returned to it again, and accepted serenely 
the penalty of their relapse, 45. Old men of ninety 
might be seen summoning up their remaining 
strength to set out on distant travel, and more than 
one perished ere he reached the asylum where he 
had hoped to rest his faltering steps and weary 
head.f 

So long as the Huguenots had any thing to lose, 
though but the shadow of their ancient liberties, 
the empty name of Henry Quatre's great edict, the 
majority confined themselves to presenting peti- 
tions and praying for a redress of grievances. They 
cherished a hope that the sanctity of law, justice, 
and humanity would be reawakened in the breast 
of their monarch ; and so far did they carry their 
endurance, as to give rise to the proverbial expres- 
sion, a Huguenot's 'patience.X But when they lost 
all, absolutely all, they consulted only what was 
due to conscience and to their outraged faith ; and 
by continuing to brave the most barbarous of edicts, 

* Benoit, Hist, de l'Eclit de Nantes. 

t Felice, vol. 2, p. 69. % Ibid. 



REVOCATION OF THE EDICT. 513 



in tlie face of exile, the galleys, and death, they 
wore out the ferocity of their tormentors. 

Emigration now attained gigantic proportions. 
In spite of cunning preventive measures — in spite 
of constantly reiterated decrees, denouncing death 
upon all who should venture to pass the French 
frontier — in spite of cordons of soldiers stationed 
to dragoon back all refugees, the tide of emigra- 
tion set resolutely, irresistibly towards Protestant 
Europe. England, Switzerland, Holland, Prussia, 
Denmark, and Sweden generously relieved their 
first necessities. 

The depopulation of the kingdom was frightful. 
The best authorities estimate that France lost five 
hundred thousand of her best, most intelligent, 
moral, and industrious citizens. * She lost besides 
sixty millions of francs in specie, and her most flour- 
ishing manufactures ;t while four hundred thou- 
sand lives paid the forfeit of the reign of terror 4 

This was what it cost to suppress the truth in 
France. 

Thousands of emigrants perished of fatigue, cold, 
and hunger, besides those lost by shipwreck, and 
those shot by the soldiers while attempting to escape. 
Thousands more were taken, chained to assassins 
and other desperate criminals, then marched across 
the kingdom, that the sight of them might strike 
their coreligionists with terror ; then they were con- 
demned to row with the convict crews. The gal- 

* Sismondi, Mein. de St. Simon. Felice, vol. 2, p. pi3. 73. 74. 
etc. t Ibid. t Felice. 

22* 



514 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



leys at Marseilles were crowded with these Chris- 
tians; and among them were magistrates, officers, 
gentlemen, and octogenarians.* The convents and 
the town of Constance at Aigue-Mortes were crowd- 
ed with devoted women. But neither threats, bar- 
barities, nor brutal and unheard of punishments 
could conquer the patience, the firmness, the en- 
ergy, the sublime faithfulness of these oppressed 
consciences. 

Of the moral results of this wholesale and 
most infamous proscription it is needless to speak. 
They are palpable. The revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes was the avant courier of the Revolution of 
1789. The religion of reason was the inevitable 
outgrowth of the religion of bestiality. Robespierre 
was the counterpart of Letellier. The act of 1685 
exiled Christ and struck the people ;• the frenzy of 
1789 was the return blow of the people ignorant 
of Christ : the Revolution was France smiting the 
tyranny which Louis XIV. inaugurated ; it was the 
explosion of ten centuries of wickedness, of bigotry, 
of oppression, of perfidy, in an awful crash. It was 
God raining his vengeance upon the Sodom of the 
monarchy and on the Gomorrah of the papacy. 

Multitudes of writers be'ar ample witness to 
the economic ruin which the revocation caused. 
" Trade," says St. Simon, " was ruined ; a quarter 
of the kingdom was perceptibly depopulated. "t 
" Whole villages were deserted," says Sismondi; 
" many of the larger towns lost half their denizens ; 

* Felice. f Mem. de St. Simon. 



REVOCATION OF THE EDICT. 



515 



hundreds of factories were closed ; some branches 
of industry became altogether extinct ; and vast 
districts absolutely ached for hands to cultivate 
them."* " The Huguenots," remarks Lamartine, 
"repaid the generous hospitality of those peoples 
with whom the}' found a home, by contributing the 
riches of their cunning labor, by the example of 
their faith, by their lives of integrity ; and while 
they thus enriched their adopted countries, France 
was impoverished."! Lemontey says, " The French 
Protestants carried into England the secret of those 
valuable machines which have laid the foundations 
of her vast wealth, while the complaints of these 
proscribed exiles cemented an avenging league at 
Augsburg."^: 

Thus it should seem that the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes was economic suicide as well as 
religious death. That fatal act not only filled the 
salons of modern France with infidel philosophers, 
it also brought pecuniary ruin. France colonized 
her hands away from her mouth. 

Only one other nation has been guilty of so bar- 
barous an act. In the sixteenth century, Philip II. 
expelled the Moors from his kingdom. Bankrupt 
and despicable, largely in consequence of that edict, 
Spain stands to-day " wicked but in will, of means 
bereft," serving, like the drunken helot, to show r 
how disgusting and ruinous mean vice is. 



* Sismondi, Hist, cle France. f Lamartine. 

% Essai sur TEtablissement Monarchiqne de Louis XIV., p. 
413. 



518 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



But the exile of the Huguenots, though it could 
not be more ruinous than the Spanish perfidy, touch- 
ed a meaner depth. The Moors were pagans, and 
in one sense interlopers ; the Huguenots were Chris- 
tians and Frenchmen. When France drove them 
into exile, she banished her manufacturers, her 
traders, her artisans ; and in consequence, industry 
languished for three generations. Indeed, France 
has never regained the vantage-ground which she 
lost, and which the wiser policy of Great Britain 
won, at that epoch. The cunning of England las- 
soed Lyons and Marseilles and Paris to the feet of 
London and Manchester and Liverpool, and she 
has ever since kept them there. Holland, in a ma- 
terial sense, gained more by this act than she had 
lost by the victorious invasions of Louis XIV. ; 
while the Huguenot colonies planted on the Cape 
of Good Hope, on the snowy steppes of the Cordil- 
leras, and, beside the sounding Atlantic, gained the 
New World for God, and compensated for the mis- 
chief worked his cause by the iniquitous politics of 
the elder continent. 



A RESUMfi. 



517 



CHAPTEB XXXVI. 

A RESUME. 

It is estimated by authoritative historians that, 
despite the enormous exodus of the proscribed re- 
formers after the suppression of Henry Quatre's 
edict, there still remained a million Huguenots in 
France, living under the ban and at the peril of the 
law.* 

Meted and peeled, they clung to their faith with 
stubborn devotion. Their unwearied appeals for 
justice reached Paris borne on every breeze. But 
steeled and unmoved, the king only shrugged his 
shoulders, and muttered, "Persecute," while the 
servile magistracy echoed, <£ So stands the law." 

But the conscience of a generous people may 
not always be fettered by cruel parchments. Live 
growths rive dead matter. Pulse-beats smite down 
the strongest tyrannies. Give it time, and a spear 
of grass will topple over the Pyramids. Gradually 
France, educated by the suffering of three centu- 
ries, grew broader than her statute-book. Iniquity 
was indeed enacted into law ; bigotry was the in- 
corporated, fundamental, avowed policy of the state. 
Yet the last years of the reign of Louis XIY. were 
gilded by the dawn of a larger charity. Beligion 
was milder when it breathed through Fenelon. Phi- 

° Sismondi, Hist, de France ; Felice, Mem. de Xevers. and 
others. 



518 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



losophy was gentler when, it spoke through, the lips 
of Pascal.* Harsh statutes were construed into im- 
potence when D'Aguesseau pronounced judgment. 
Letters were humaner ; the collectors of lewd anec- 
dotes, the gatherers of the broken crumbs of history, 
recorders of the gossip of cafes and the whispers of 
the back-stairs of the Louvre, no longer monopo- 
lized literature ; and soon, through the tragedy of 
"Esther," Racine raised his voice against intoler- 
ance, t 

This was the insurrection of civilization. "It 
was the human mind which, constantly persecuted, 
opposed, headed off, has disappeared only to ap- 
pear again ; and passing from one labor to another, 
has taken successively, from age to age, the figure 
of all the great reformers. It was the human mind 
which was called John Huss, and which did not die 
on the funeral-pile of Constance; which was named 
Luther, and shook Romanism to its centre ; which 
was called Calvin, and organized the Reformation; 
which, since history began, has transformed socie- 
ties according to a law progressively acceptable to 

* Plaise Pascal, a famous French mathematician and philoso- 
pher, born 1623, died 1662. He figured in the controversy be- 
tween the Jesuits and the Port Royal school ; and his "Provincial 
Letters" are said to have been the origin of the hostile feeling 
against the "Society of Jesus" which, a century later, drove them 
out of France for the second time. 

f Racine depicted Louvois in the blackest colors ; and to avoid 
all chance of misconstruction, he put into Haman's mouth the 
precise words of Louvois, which escaped him in the delirium of 
his pride. Nor did the poet scruple to refer to Louis : 

" Et le roi trop credule a signe et edit." 



A RESUME. 



519 



reason ; which has been theocracy, aristocracy, 
monarchy, and which is to-day religious democ- 
racy; which has been Babylon, Tyre, Jerusalem, 
Athens, Rome; which has been by turns error, illu- 
sion, schism, protestation, truth ; but which has al- 
ways groped towards the Just, the Beautiful, the 
True, enlightening multitudes, ennobling life, rais- 
ing more and more the head of the people towards 
the Eight, and the head of the individual towards 
God."* 

The government of France might slaughter indi- 
viduals, might annihilate Paris to the last pave- 
ment, and the kingdom to the last hamlet, still it 
would have done nothing. " There would yet re- 
main to be destroyed something always paramount, 
above the generations, between man and his Maker ; 
something which has written the books, invented 
the arts, discovered the worlds, founded the civili- 
zations; something which will always grasp, under 
the form of revolution, what is not yielded under 
the form of progress ; something which is unseiz- 
able as the light, unapproachable as the sun, and 
which God calls the human mind."t 

But while the premonitory phases of a revolu- 
tion were beginning to appear, the law stood long 
unchanged, pitiless. The war of the Camisards 
stained the seventeenth century ; it was a frightful 
tragedy enacted by the Huguenot peasants of the 
Vivavais, frenzied by that " oppression " which, as 

° Victor Hugo, Speech in the National Assembly, 1851. 
1 Ibid. 



520 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



Solomon says, " makes the wise man mad." After 
the employment of fiend-like cruelties, in which the 
demoniacal ingenuity of Indian torture was com- 
bined with the scientific inventions of semi-civiliza- 
tion, the Camisards were subjugated — the throats 
of a whole population were cut.* 

Thus passed away the age of Louis XIV. ; the 
penal code unsoftened, but public opinion liberal- 
ized. 

The first years of the reign of Louis XV. were 
barren of good fruit. Spasmodic acts of bigotry 
occurred, but the lawyers lingered more and more 
in the execution of the prescribed barbarities ; and 
when a nation shudders at its laws, they are already 
half abolished. There were even instances of judg- 
ments pronounced by judges directly against the 
obnoxious statutes ;f they preferred to see their 
decisions reversed by appeal, rather than suffer the 
humiliation of having them confirmed — obeying jus- 
tice in disobeying the law. 

Disgusted by the mummeries of the Vatican, 
France began at this period to imbibe the poison 
of infidelity ; but the scholars of the philosophical 
school did not bestow one good word upon the Hu- 
guenots. This was happy; the benediction of infi- 
del savans would not have been appropriate. Mon- 

* Pardoe, Louis XIV. and the Court of France, vol. 2, p. 341. 
Bruey's Hist, du Fanaticisnie, vol. 1, p. 183. Browning, p. 385, 
et seq. 

f Witness the judicial records of France in this age. Some of 
these decisions may be found in Felice ; they are referred to in 
" Huguenots in France and America," vol. 2. 



A KESUME. 



521 



tesquieu did not mention these oppressed children 
of God's right hand; Rousseau, the child of Calvin's 
own city, attacked Romanism more than he defend- 
ed the Protestant idea. Between this bastard phi- 
losophy and Christianity there was little in com- 
mon, no point (Vappui. 

In 1744, a Huguenot synod was convened at 
Nismes. Denied baptism, burial, and the marriage 
ceremony, deprived of a legal status, they deter- 
mined to hold their services in the open air. 
"This," said one, "is better than the catacombs of 
the earliest Christians; since God gives us the field, 
let us praise him there."* These meetings were 
called "Assemblies du desert" To avoid awakening 
the suspicion of the government, the Huguenots 
repaired unarmed to their forest rendezvous. There, 

' ; In the darkling wood, 
Amid the cool and silence they knelt down, 
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And supplications ; for their simple hearts 
Might not resist the sacred influences 
Which, from the stilly twilight of the place, 
And from the gray old trunks, that high in heaven 
Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound 
Of the invisible breath, that swayed at once 
All their green tops, stole over them, and bowed 
Their spirits with the thought of boundless power 
And inaccessible majesty." 

And here, under the canopy of heaven, the sacra- 
ments were celebrated, the rites of sepulture were 
performed, and the union of affection was sanctified 
by religion. Yet the marriages of the desert, as they 

* Lemontey, Essai sur 1'Etablissement Monarchique de Louis 
Quatorze. 



522 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



were called, were afterwards termed concubinage, 
and the hereditary estates of the posterity of per- 
sons so united were forfeited."" 

But though a crushing yoke rested upon the 
necks of the Huguenots, each year brought some 
alleviation. Four generations of persecutors and 
of victims passed away. Le Men aime, as the most 
indolent and sensual of kings was ironically nick- 
named, was huddled into the tomb of Hugh Cap6t. 
Louis XVI. commenced his inauspicious reign ; and 
Marie Antoinette, beautiful as Burke described her, 
shared the fatal throne. Then, in 1787, the statute 
of toleration glittered on the horizon. It was the 
offspring of patience and persistence, of faith and 
prayer. The Huguenots wearied out the Inqui- 
sition. 

The edict of toleration, clutched from the un- 
willing grip of the government by the impetuous 
statesmanship of the impending Revolution one 
hundred and two years after the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, was narrow and niggardly in its 
main features ; but it granted to the non-conform- 
ists four things : the right to live in France, and to 
practise a profession or carry on a trade without 
molestation on account of religion ; permission to 
marry legally; an authorization to certify births 
before the judge of their place of residence ; regu- 
lations as to the burial of those who could not be 
interred according to the Roman ritual.t 

* Lemontey, Essai sur l'^tablissement, etc. 
f Repertoire Ecclesiast., pp. 6, 7. 



A KESUME. 



523 



So ran the text ; but the practice was not so 
narrow as the precept. The Huguenots had gained 
a legal status, and although they were forbidden, to 
assemble for public worship, yet no penalty enforced 
the prohibition. They had not been deterred from 
the exercise of their religion by the fiercest prohib- 
itory legislation ; should they now desist when there 
was no punishment ? 

The heroic congregations of the wilderness held 
grateful jubilee ; their forty years seemed well-nigh 
ended, and Canaan loomed up before their glisten- 
ing eyes. "At length," cried Lafayette, himself 
one of the most strenuous advocates of every spe- 
cies of equality on either continent, great in the 
beneficence of goodness, "at length Protestants are 
permitted to become husbands and fathers."* 

But the frail breakwater of this decree was not 
of sufficient importance to arrest the surging tide 
which now began to gurgle round the throat of 
France. One by one the liberties of the kingdom 
had been entrapped and bound. Socialist mani- 
festoes terminated in a Jesuitical policy. An im- 
mense intrigue was baptized with the name of gov- 
ernment. 

Then intervened the Revolution. Into that 
yawning abyss tumbled every thing — law, order, 
religion. The heads of Romanist and Protestant 
alike fell under the indiscriminate g revolutionary 
hatchet. t The frenzied insurgents propped up the 
corpse of martyred liberty upon its gory tomb ; 
0 Huguenots in France, etc., vol. 2. f Felice, vol. 2. 



524 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



then hastening to the market-place, they crowned 
the goddess of a spurious reason with garlands of 
flowers. Thus the ecclesiasticism of the Vatican, 
which had been rampant in France for a thousand 
years, inciting every crime, lauding every infamy, 
gloating over every outrage upon human nature, 
" stealing the livery of heaven to serve the devil 
in" — this monstrosity called Romanism ended fitly 
in a scoff and a blasphemy. 

'Tis a history full of blood and full of tears. 
" Never," says Lamartine, " did weaknesses more 
quickly engender faults ; faults, crimes ; crimes, 
punishment. That retributive justice which God 
has implanted in our very acts, as a conscience 
more sacred than the fatalism of the ancients, never 
manifested itself more unequivocally; never was 
the law of morality illustrated by more ample tes- 
timony, or avenged more mercilessly. Blood spilled 
like water not only shrieks in accents of terror and 
of pity, but gives a lesson and an example to man- 
kind."* 

At length the phantom of this bastard liberty 
was laid; " Oct ira" and the "Marseillaise" lost 
their fierceness ; the tamed insurrectionary cho- 
ruses died out in a plaintive wail ; the revolution 
sobbed itself to sleep in curses. The frightful days 
of 1793 passed into history; above the subsiding 
waves reappeared the turrets and towers of old 
institutions. Even before the overthrow of the 
Republic, the "Goddess of Reason" was depos- 

* Lamartine, History of the Girondists, vol. 1, introduction. 



A RESUME. 



525 



eel;* and the dismal inscription, "Death is an eter- 
nal sleep," ceased to insult God and the human 
heart.t Once awakened from their awful trance, 
men came to feel that " there would be no dignity 
in life, that it would not be worth the holding, if in 
death we wholly perish. Ail that lightens labor 
and sanctifies toil ; all that renders man brave, 
good, wise, noble, patient, benevolent, just, hum- 
ble, and at the same time great, worthy of intelli- 
gence, worthy of liberty, worthy of God, is to have 
perpetually before him the vision of a better world 
darting its rays of celestial splendor through the 
dark shadows of this present life. No one shall 
unjustly or needlessly suffer in the hereafter. 
Death is restitution. By limiting man's end and 
aim to this terrestrial and material existence, we 
aggravate all his miseries by the terrible negation 
at its close. No ; there is an ulterior life. In that, 
mercy reigns through Christ ; hope is its beacon, 
and the 1 perfect liberty of the sons of God 1 is its 
fruition. The law of the material world is gravita- 
tion ; of the moral world, equity. At the end of 
all reappears God, 'Judge of the quick and the 
dead. 5 "$ 

When Napoleon usurped the government, one 
of his first acts was to reestablish religion. In 
1795, a decree was issued authorizing the free ex- 
ercise of religious worship. But anxious to win 
the benediction of the pope, Bonaparte leaned in 



* Thiers, Consulate and Empire. f Ibid. 

% Victor Hugo, Speech in the National Assembly, 1851. 



52o 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



his policy towards the Vatican, and Protestantism 
was shackled by mild conditions.* 

Under the restoration, Bonaparte's edict re- 
mained substantially unaltered. Charles X. left 
the law untouched, and on his flight bequeathed it 
to Louis Philippe. When the government of the 
citizen king went down before an after-dinner 
speech and an epigram, when a cab carried the 
new royalty into exile, toleration did not follow it. 
Firm through the days of the second Republic, it 
likewise survived the coup d'etat of Louis Bona- 
parte in 1852, and soon received the imprimatur of 
the Empire. 

Napoleon, anxious, like his uncle, to reestablish 
the principle of authority , which in France is based 
on the ancient traditions of the papacy, has placat- 
ed the Vatican by a succession of complaisant acts 
which have given Romanism the eclat of the national 
religion, and whose tendency is to suppress the 
growth of the dissenters. Napoleon perceives that 
the natural, inevitable gravitation of Protestantism 
is towards democracy. He remembers De Tocque- 
ville's prophecy that all Europe is gradually march- 
ing to that goal.t Hence the emperor, at the head 
of an abnormal government, cannot but look with 
suspicion upon the non-conformists. 

Still, despite the open unfriendliness of the 
state and the sinister efforts of the Romanist party, 
the descendants of the Huguenots maintain their 

* Thiers, Consulate and Empire. 

f De Tocqneville, Democracy in America. 



A K^STJME. 



527 



ground. The Revolution robbed the ultramonta- 
nists of great prestige by the confiscation of the im- 
mense church property ; it also made the people 
suspicious of their ascendency in the etat civile. 
This gives the reformers a fulcrum upon which to 
rest their lever. They have several colleges, one 
at Montauban, one at Nismes, one at Paris.* The 
south of France, the ancient strong-hold of the 
Reformation, is yet the rendezvous of Protestant- 
ism, f The Lutheran, the Wesleyan, the Calvinist 
denominations are militant \% and they can afford 
to be patient, sure that, since their essential princi- 
ples are in conformity with the fundamental tenets 
of the New Testament, the future is theirs, and that 
they will eventually subdue the conscience of the 
human race beneath their sway. 

"Wrong," says Victor Hugo, "is but a hideous 
flash in the darkness -; right is an eternal ray." 

The object of the Huguenots was the demoli- 
tion of idols, the purification of the sanctuary, the 
reinauguration of primitive Christianity ; to bring 
man to God through the divine Redeemer, the 
" one Mediator," by the abolition of an impious, 
mediatorial priest-caste, and the promulgation of 
the golden truth which Luther reaffirmed, and 
which Calvin echoed, "justification by faith" in 
Christ, the invocation of His sole intercession at 
the heavenly bar. 

Standing in the sunlight of the nineteenth cen- 

* Felice, Hist, of French Protestantism. Browning. 

t Ibid. % Browning, p. 439. 



528 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



tury, the age of unfettered lips, of myriad churches, 
of open Bibles, whose great heart throbs with that 
love of God which is " perfect liberty," who shall 
say that the Huguenots have not grandly performed 
their work ? 

Let each of us reverently thank God for the 
light of their example ; let us determine to be 
worthy of the past, and the apostles of a sublimer 
future. 





..«* J? 



1*" . 



DOBBS BROS. 

LIBRARY BINDING 

NOV 81 

ST. AUGUSTINE 
FLA. 





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